A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes
by Johnny Farrar
Summary: A fast-paced action thriller that chronicles Harry's journey as he seeks to destroy the Horcruxes. Follow Harry Potter as he faces desertion from friends, courts allies amidst enemies and traverses through a quagmire of uncharted and undefined magic.
1. Fractures In Friendship

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes

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**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

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**Summary:**

A fast–paced action thriller that chronicles Harry's journey as he seeks to destroy the Horcruxes. Follow Harry Potter as he faces desertion from friends, courts allies amidst enemies and traverses through the very depths of uncharted and undefined magic.

**Pairing:**

Harry Potter and Narcissa Malfoy.

**Canon:**

Story begins in the middle of Deathly Hallows. There will be certain changes in canon that will be explained during the course of the story.

Spoilers from all the books.

**Rating: **

Rated T for now will later go up to M.

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**Chapter 1  
****Fractures In Friendship**

Harry reeled the Extendable Ear back, mind whirling at the possibilities of the conversation that they'd eavesdropped. He turned towards Hermione. "The sword, it's fake—"

"I know!" she exclaimed, as she made a grab for her tiny beaded handbag. Hermione opened it – hands trembling in excitement – and put her arm deep into it and pulled out from its depth an ornate picture frame.

"The portrait of Phineas Nigellus," she said looking at Harry, as she explained. "He may have seen something in Dumbledore's office."

"Brilliant," said Harry, marvelling at her quick reasoning.

A lack of clue for so long after the Ministry debacle had very nearly killed their sense of adventure — thrill and excitement turning into boredom and lethargy. The eavesdropped conversation, however, between Ted Tonks and Dean with the goblins had once again renewed their vigour for the thrill of the hunt.

The two of them – Harry and Hermione – crowded over the blank and empty portrait of the former Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Phineas ... Phineas Nigellus," tried Hermione, but nothing happened. The portrait remained static and blank.

"Professor Black, can we talk to you? Please." Hermione asked again, with respect and deference this time.

"Requesting always helps more than demanding, yes." A cold and snide disembodied voice answered from within the portrait, moments before the tall figure of Phineas Nigellus himself entered the picture frame.

Hermione, as she stood beside Harry, swiftly rapped the portrait with her wand causing a large black band to appear in front of the portrait, obscuring Phineas' face. Harry recognising the magic as an Obscuring Charm looked sideways at Hermione and gave her a small smile of approval.

Harry had first–hand seen Dumbledore using the Hogwarts' portrait's both as a messenger and as a spy; he didn't want Snape to employ the same means against them.

"What is this … what's going on?" Phineas questioned agitatedly as the black band obscured his visual senses.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Professor Black, but I'm afraid that it's a necessary precaution," replied Hermione.

"You idiotic girl, remove this foul addition at once," Phineas commanded with rage. "You are desecrating a piece of art."

Harry ignored the man's vehemence and spoke out, "We need your help, Phineas."

Phineas' body immediately turned towards him and though he couldn't see him, he said, "Ah! Mr. Potter, is it? "

"Yes, Phineas," replied Harry. "We'd like to ask you a few questions."

"You have been very elusive Mr. Potter. There are a lot of people looking for you."

"I'm sure there are," said Harry non-chalantly.

"Indeed," Phineas replied quietly.

"What d'you know about the sword of Godric Gryffindor, Phineas?" Harry asked, jumping staring to the point.

"Ah, yes, the idiotic Weasley girl and her stupid friends acted most unwisely —"

"Shut up about my sister," Ron piped up, interrupting Phineas. Harry spared his friend a quick glance to see an angry expression etched on his face.

"The idiot girl attempted to steal from the Headmaster. A most fool-hardy venture — little surprise that she and her friends were punished for it."

"Her friends you said ... who was there and how were they punished?" asked Hermione, fear for Ginny's well-being clear in her trembling voice.

"That buffoon Longbottom, the oddity Lovegood and the Weasley girl, I believe, were sent to do detention with Professor Carrow."

"What kind of detention?" Harry asked, dreading the answer to his question. He knew the Carrows to be Death Eaters; detention with one of them had to be worse than Umbridge.

"I do not know, Potter."

Harry turned silent, fear for his friends' safety dominating all his conscious thoughts.

"They are alive Potter, if that's what you are worried about," said Phineas solemnly, inferring the silence accurately.

Harry silently heaved a sigh of relief. While he hadn't dared to contemplate that they might be dead, it had been a very real worry in his heart.

"When was the last time you saw the sword?" Hermione continued with the questioning.

"I recall the last time I saw it was when Dumbledore broke open a ring with it," answered Phineas.

Harry exchanged a glance Hermione. They both understood the significance of that. Dumbledore must have somehow used the sword to destroy the Horcrux in the ring.

He remembered the Gaunt ring had a massive crack through it. Dumbledore must have utilised the sword to destroy the Horcrux. That must have been the reason why he wished to give the sword to him. What he couldn't understand, however, was how a sword, no matter how legendary, could destroy a Horcrux. Hermione had told him that only the most powerful corrosive of materials can destroy Horcruxes. A sword shouldn't have worked.

His thoughts took a vexed turn though as realisation struck him, _did Snape know about this?_

"Did you tell Snape about this?" he asked Phineas worriedly, even as his heart beat rapidly in his chest; fear of discovery very palpable. If Snape came to know what they were up to then all would be for naught.

"No, Potter. Professor Snape has more important things on his mind then the sheer eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore." Harry heaved a sigh of relief at his words. "And I shall take my leave now, seeing as you have done nothing but waste my time," replied Phineas haughtily and left the portrait frame.

"The sword can destroy Horcruxes, Harry. Goblin-made items emulate anything that strengthens them which means that the sword is imbibed with Basilisk venom," Hermione informed him with evident joy, the moment Phineas disappeared from the picture.

"_Muffliato!_" said Harry, applying the charm on the blank portrait.

"Don't want him spying on us," he explained to Hermione's questioning look.

She nodded and then asked him, "Can you think of any time Professor Dumbledore may have hinted towards the sword's location?"

Harry slowly shook his head. He didn't remember Dumbledore ever mentioning the sword.

"Think Harry, maybe he'd said something ... anything about it," demanded Hermione with a curious look on her face, as if she wanted nothing better than to take a look inside Harry's head and find the answer herself.

"No. He didn't say anything about it. He didn't even mention the sword at all," answered Harry, still wondering if the Headmaster had ever talked about the sword during any of his private lessons.

"Can't you think of any place he might've kept it?" asked Hermione, looking desperate for a positive answer.

"Nope," said Harry. He didn't understand why Dumbledore hadn't just given the sword to him all those times he'd lessons with the 'dafter all hid the sword somewhere and not trusted Snape with it. Harry felt a chord of vengeance strike within him. He was glad to see that Dumbledore did have some reservation of trust against Snape.

"Ron, what do you think?" Hermione asked Ron, who surprisingly had been quiet for some time.

"Oh! Finally remembered me, have you?" Ron replied bitingly.

"What're you talking about?" Harry asked him, confused at his sudden burst of anger.

"Me, Harry. You wanna know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that you seem more concerned with finding this sword than what may have happened to my sister," Ron snarled at him.

"What!" Harry asked Ron, confused. "I'm worried about Ginny."

"Yeah right," Ron scoffed. "You're sitting here talking about where Gryffindor's blasted sword might be and Ginny is suffering there in Hogwarts. And it's because of you, dammit."

"You heard what he said, _'They're alive Potter'_," he continued furiously. "Which doesn't sound too good about how they are, does it?" Ron mocked him. "Why the bloody hell did we come on this trip?" he screamed at him.

"What have we done, huh?"he asked Harry heatedly, face scrunched up in anger and hatred. "Nothing — you'd no bloody idea what to do and now we're roaming the country-side as fugitives, suffering this damn cold, without anything to eat."

Ron stopped, breathing heavily from his impromptu outburst.

Even in the low light of the candle that hung in the tent, Harry could clearly see the vicious expression on his face.

Harry couldn't honestly say that he wasn't expecting this, especially after the whispered conversations he'd noticed between Ron and Hermione, the past few days. His lack of surprise though in no way stopped his own bubbling feelings of hurt and anger at Ron, even as some of his words about his inability to achieve anything struck true within Harry.

"Ron, you damn well knew this was going to be a difficult mission to accomplish," said Harry, his fists clenched and eyes narrowed at Ron. "What did you expect — Dear Mommy to feed you while you hunted for Horcruxes? Grow up Ron. This isn't a game we're playing."

"Yeah, well we thought that Dumbledore had a real plan that you were gonna tell us later on." He sneered at him.

"I've been truthful with you from the very beginning. I told you guys everything that I knew, everything that Dumbledore told me and you know what — I'm sorry, Ron. I'm sorry for not hiding anything from you," said Harry sarcastically.

"And don't you think I don't care about Ginny. I do and more than you think," asserted Harry, "but there is no bloody thing that I can do for her right now."

"So that's it. You're gonna to let it be," demanded Ron.

"What do you expect me to do?" asked Harry frustrated.

"I don't know. Something, anything," he screamed. "Get her out of that damned place."

"And how the hell am I gonna do that? I can't just waltz into Hogwarts with wands blazing and get her out of there," Harry told him, wanting Ron to see reason.

"You bloody disgust me. After everything that my family has done for you, this" he poked him hard with a finger on his chest. "This is how you repay us," he shouted.

Ron turned away from him and said, "I shouldn't have come on this stupid trip."

"Then you know you what the solution is, don't you? Get out!" said Harry pointing towards the tent flap, anger getting the better of him. "And you wanna know something Ron. You wouldn't even have a family had it not been for me, seeing the sheer number of times I'd to save them."

Ron looked at him with disgusted face. Harry thought for a second that he'd gone too far and Ron was going to strike him. His hand creped slowly towards his pocket, to grasp his wand but Ron had already turned away from him.

"I'm leaving," answered Ron shortly. He turned towards Hermione and said, "Come on, let's go," Ron said in a furious voice.

"Wait, Ron. This is not the right decision," begged Hermione, her tone pleading.

"Oh, c'mon! You said yourself that we won't get anywhere with the shitty way he's leading," answered Ron.

Harry whirled around to look at Hermione and snarled at her, "You too, Hermione! If you really think that I'm not capable of finding the Horcruxes, then leave! Leave, I won't stop you."

"Will you listen to me for a second?" Hermione demanded coolly.

"What do you have to say now?" Harry snapped.

"Harry, please for a moment, forget your anger and think rationally. We haven't had a breakthrough for months now. We don't know any of the locations of the Horcruxes. And the only one we have managed to find, we can't destroy. We need the Order's help," she said.

"No," Harry stated simply.

"Damn it Harry! You know we can't do this alone. We need help," she said beseeching him.

"If Dumbledore wanted to tell the Order about Horcruxes then he'd have told them himself," said Harry.

"Dumbledore is dead."

"So ... it doesn't mean that I'm going to stop following his orders."

"The situation has changed. Surely, you understand that. The sooner we accomplish this task, the sooner the war will be over. We cannot afford to wait Harry; people are dying out there."

"I won't tell the Order." His voice firm and left no room for argument.

Hermione sighed heavily and looked into Harry's eyes, regret was evident in her voice as she said, "I'm sorry that it has come to this but we need to do this, otherwise we won't win the war. Goodbye, Harry," she said while moving to pick up her things, Ron having already packed his luggage.

"I can't let you do that," said Harry while drawing his wand.

Ron took out his wand with a clumsy draw and Hermione went for hers.

"_Expelliarmus!_" yelled Harry, twirling his wand in Ron's direction. He was surprised, however, when both Ron and Hermione's wands flew towards him. He reflexively snatched them out of the air and stared at them for a moment, before reaffirming his grip on his wand and turning back to the two.

"What the —" Ron exclaimed.

"What are you doing?" Hermione demanded.

"I told you Hermione, I can't allow you to go to the Order," said Harry.

"So what are you going to do, Harry? Forcibly keep us here," asked Hermione with a tinge of anger in her otherwise calm voice.

"Make us your damn prisoners!" Ron exclaimed in rage.

"No," replied Harry truthfully. "You came with me on our own and I'm not going to force you to stay here if you don't want to. But I can't allow you to go and babble to the Order either. So, I'll obliviate you of your knowledge of the Horcruxes."

"Wha … what?" Ron said almost speechless.

"Harry, you can't do this. It's illegal," Hermione screeched.

"Didn't stop you from doing it to your parents, did it Hermione?" Harry retorted.

"Only because I wanted to keep them safe from the Death Eaters, and you know that, Harry," said Hermione.

Ron in the meantime must have caught up with what Harry had said because he charged towards him with a roar.

He stood no chance. Harry had his wand at the ready in the blink of an eye, Ron's belligerent roar having already alerted Harry to his intentions.

'_Depulso!_'

The silent Banishing Charm caught Ron in the chest, lifting him off his feet and threw him across the room to the wall of the tent. A Stunner followed the Banisher; the red bolt of magic knocked him out cold.

Harry's wand flicked towards Hermione, the moment he'd dealt with Ron. His actions didn't broker any reaction from her, but her pale face and the fear in her eyes said much.

"Remember the _The Tales of Beedle the Bard _Hermione,and the books on Horcruxes that you took from Dumbledore. I want you to hand them over. Also, take off the Slytherin's locket from Ron and the Put-Outer," demanded Harry.

"Keep them on the table over there," said Harry, as he gestured with his wand towards the corner-table.

"Dumbledore willed those items to us," she said quietly.

"I know." Harry nodded his head. "However, since you won't be looking for the Horcruxes anymore, you aren't going to need them. I promise you though, if and when I get done with the Horcruxes, I would return them back to you."

"Harry, please reconsider. You need help, you can't do this alone," she beseeched him.

"I can and I will."

"And how will you do it? You don't even know where to start looking for the Horcruxes, never mind find them. And even if you luckily manage to locate a Horcrux, how will you destroy it? Don't you see Harry, we don't have the information or the tools that we need!" cried Hermione, frustration evident in her voice.

"I'll manage somehow," said Harry. Though he didn't voice it, even he was unsure how he would do so. Hermione had pointed out some valid hurdles on his quest that he would need to overcome.

"You're deluding yourself, Harry. You know you can't do this alone. We haven't been able to achieve anything in the past few weeks. This thing is bigger than your ego. Just because you failed at the task doesn't mean that others will," she snapped.

"Is this what you've been thinking, Hermione? Did it even cross your mind that there may be more to my insistence than my ego; that there may be some reason for not involving the Order?"

Harry was hurt by her claims that he was unwilling to ask for help just to assuage his ego. He would never jeopardise others life just to prove himself. There were reasons for their solitary work; reasons that he'd have surely explained to her had she but asked.

"Did you even listen to what they were talking outside? The war's over and we lost it. The Order no longer exists. And even if we go to the Order or what's left of it, what can they do for us? And what do you think will happen if You-Know-Who came to know that we were looking for his Horcruxes? He'll hide them so well that no one will ever find them. And he will find out if we tell other people about it. There's some kind of leak in the Order. How else do you explain the attack on Privet Drive? They knew when I was leaving," he said.

"No, we can't tell anyone about the Horcruxes. I can't let you tell anyone about them," Harry asserted himself.

"Harry, we won't inform everyone about the Horcruxes, only those who are trustworthy," replied Hermione.

"How will you know who's trustworthy and who's not? Anyway, it's not a matter of trust. If any one of the people you're going to tell about the Horcruxes is slipped Veritaserum or Legilimency is used on them, which you know is quite possible, then we are all done for."

"That's a risk we'll have to take."

"I can't allow you to do that," he said. "I'm tired of this argument, Hermione, just give me the items and we can get this over with," said Harry.

Hermione walked over to Ron's prone form and picked off the Slytherin's locket from his neck. She frisked his body and took out the Put-Outer from Ron's pocket, then proceeded to extract the fairy tale book and the books on Horcruxes from her side bag and left them on the corner-table.

She turned around to face him and said, "You've what you want, now just let us go, Harry."

"I'll but after I've Obliviated the Horcrux's knowledge from your mind. Can't have you spilling your guts to the Order now, can I?"

"Harry, please don't do this! Obliviation is a very complicated piece of magic. It's not as simple as pointing your wand at someone and saying the incantation. You could permanently damage both of our minds. I did the Obliviation on my parents after a lot of study; you probably don't even know anything about it other than the incantation."

"Don't worry about it, Hermione, I'm a fairly accomplished Obliviator," said Harry and immediately trained his wand on her. Her eyes went wide as he cast the incantation verbally, a necessity, he hadn't progressed far enough to do it non-verbally, yet. However, the spell wasn't the Obliviation Charm.

"_Legilimens!"_

Harry wanted an in-depth knowledge of her memories of the Horcruxes and their discussions about it. It was best to make sure that he had all the memories that he wanted to remove before doing the actual Obliviation. It removed any chance of partial remembrance as well as limited the chance of magical damage to the mind.

Reading minds was not an easy procedure; one could even say that it was impossible. Snape had that right. Legilimency did not allow one read another person's thought. It simply wasn't as easy as that, the human mind being far too complex. What it did was that, it allowed the caster to sense the emotions and get slight glimpses into the memories of the person on whom it was cast.

Most people could with some difficulty cast the spell and out of that a few of them could probably even get it right with some hard work. The difficulty didn't arise in getting the spell to work right; it arose in understanding and interpreting exactly what one was viewing.

While Harry had put some heavy work during the past year into his burgeoning skills, he was still a novice in the art of Occlumency and Legilimency.

From what little he could understand of the flashes of thoughts and emotions, he could sense the fear and excitement that was currently present within her.

Harry went a little back in time by forcing to think about his own sixth year and then pushing those thoughts at her, hoping that he would get some form of mental reaction. It was an extremely basic and crude procedure, but it was all he was capable of at the moment.

It worked; her tangible emotions and thoughts of her sixth year crashed against his skull.

He discarded the irrelevant memories and started digging for feelings that she'd associated with the Horcruxes. He found a fair amount of thoughts about their discussions of the Horcruxes. He wrenched himself free from her mind, the moment he'd gained the information that he sought.

Hermione's face was scrunched up in obvious pain from the mental invasion. Harry himself would have been in the same condition but for the amount of hard work and practice that he had been put under by his teacher during the past year.

Legilimency was difficult for the caster too, unless he or she was well acquainted with Occlumency. Since, the amount of external feelings over and above one's own could overburden the human mind and Harry was much better at Occlumency than he was at Legilimency. Experienced Legilimencers however, could be so swift with their work that one would hardly feel their presence.

He looked at Hermione, still reeling from the headache and disorientation that Harry knew she must be feeling, from past experience; wasting no time he lifted his wand and said aloud, "_Obliviate!"_

Hermione had been right though, anyone without proper knowledge of Obliviation could permanently damage their own mind and of the person on whom it was cast.

So, it was a good thing that he was rather experienced in Obliviation. His mentor had thought that learning Obliviation properly would help him with both Occlumency and Legilimency and he'd practiced it a few times on Filch, when he had been caught past curfew in Hogwarts.

Entering Hermione's mind, so to speak, he systematically focused on her memories relating to the Horcruxes, trying to encapsulate them in her mind, and then moved on to the gifts Dumbledore had left to her and Ron. Finally, he captured her memory of the current argument and metaphorically lumped them all together in preparation.

Since, it would be fairly easy for some experienced healers to return her memory; he didn't want her to have any inkling of thought regarding her Obliviation.

After he'd gathered all the memories, he proceeded to smear them with magic. The procedure was similar to painting colour on a piece of paper in which something had been written in. The written lines could be thought of as memories and the process of painting the colour was akin to the art of Obliviation. Of course, the actual procedure was much more complicated than that, but the gist was the same. If the colour could be removed, one could view the written lines once again.

He extracted himself from her mind once he'd finished the Obliviation and allowed her body to fall to the ground unhindered. There had been a lot of memories and as such the amount of pressure on her mind had probably forced it to shut down itself, which was probably the reason for her unconsciousness.

It had been more difficult than he'd thought it would be. Even when he'd practiced Obliviation under his teacher he had never really Obliviated so many memories or when he had done the clandestine Obliviations on Filch.

Harry took a deep breath to steady himself then walked over to Ron and went through the same procedure. He'd left certain memories intact in their minds so that their sub-conscious could explain what had transpired to their conscious mind.

All they would remember was that they had an argument over his uncaring attitude towards Ginny, which ended in a duel with him knocking them unconscious. Regarding their mission of destroying the Horcruxes, they will only remember that they had run away to kill Voldemort, without any plan on how to do so.

The misdirection that he'd planted was extremely weak and anyone with experience, digging deep in their mind could uncover the Obliviation. It was all he was capable of at the moment though. Creating fake memories to give the mind a semblance of what had transpired during the time-period of the memory that was removed was a hard procedure and well beyond Harry's current novice skills.

"Wha … what's going on?"

He heard some mumbling behind him, turned around to see that Hermione had regained consciousness.

She looked at him, their eyes met and she glanced down to see his wand pointing at Ron.

"Get away from him, you bastard," she screamed out at him.

Harry stood up and moved away from Ron's prone form.

Hermione half-walked, half-crawled over to Ron. She checked on his pulse to make sure that he was still alive.

"What have you done to him?" she asked breathlessly.

"He's just unconscious," replied Harry calmly.

"Give my wand back," she demanded.

Harry threw both hers and Ron's wand back at her. It didn't matter really; he could easily handle both of them in a fight.

"_Ennervate!_" Hermione incanted, while pointing her wand at Ron's chest.

"Argh … What's going on?" Ron woke up groggily. He turned his head around to get a bearing of the place and his eyes fell on Harry.

"I'm going to kill you," said Ron savagely.

Harry didn't bother to reply, only wondering how Ron's freshly Obliviated mind was interpreting the circumstances.

"I thought I knew you, Harry," said Hermione with scorn in her eyes. "What happened to the boy who used to care so much about his friends? You simply don't care what happens to Ginny and the Weasley family, after all they have done for you. I'm ashamed to have called you a friend once."

Anger towards him for his uncaring attitude towards Ginny and the Weasley family, reflected Harry. While he'd expected the former, since, he had left certain memories intact to show his apathy towards his Ginny, the latter took him by surprise. He realised that it must have been a consequence of removing so many memories, both fresh and old, though of course he couldn't be sure. Obliviation was extremely complicated and dangerous as he was coming to realise.

Hermione looked at him straight in the eyes. Her eyes showing the anger she felt at his so–called betrayal and the hurt she was undoubtedly feeling upon the break–up of seven years of close friendship.

The three of them stood there for a moment, standing at the three corners of a triangle — the low light in the tent cast huge shadows. A moment passed, and that was all it took to probably fracture their friendship beyond any hope of recovery.

Hermione closed her eyes and lowered her head before giving a slight shake. Harry got the impression that she was giving him up as a lost cause.

She turned towards Ron and said, "He's not worth it. Let's leave."

"Yeah, let's go. He doesn't deserve our friendship," said Ron picking up their stuff, his voice still taut with anger.

Harry watched them leave the tent and after a few short moments heard two sharp cracks signalling their departure.

**O**

He sat down heavily on the recliner, tired both mentally and physically.

His mind was in turmoil. Close bonds of friendship cultivated over a period of seven years – destroyed – shattered to smithereens in an instant of doubt, anger and hatred.

He could still remember the kinship he had felt with Ron when he'd first stepped into his compartment in the Hogwarts Express. He could still feel the excitement and fear that he'd felt while trying to save Hermione from the troll. He could remember, vividly, all their misdemeanours together. Hermione's incessant badgering to complete their homework. Ron's extremely detailed description of the various Quidditch matches that he'd heard or read about, his fascination with the Chudley Canons and all of their dangerous adventures that they'd gone through together — gone in an instant.

Everything was finished. He was alone once again. _Was it my fault_, Harry questioned himself.

_No ... no, it isn't my fault_, he thought. _It is theirs; they chose to leave me, not the other way around. I'm not going to blame myself for their desertion._

He wiped his eyes roughly. _Something in my eye … _

He refused to admit, even to himself that he was saddened, even broken-hearted at their departure.

As for being alone in his life, well, he had always been alone, hadn't he? Ever since his days with the Dursley's he'd learned to live his life in solitude. _Why should it matter now? _Yet, despite his platitudes to himself, Harry felt more alone and lonely than he'd ever felt in his life.

He shook his head to clear his mind. He had more important things that needed his attention.

He gathered his things. He felt it prudent not to linger at the place any longer than it was strictly necessary.

He picked up the books on Horcruxes and _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_, from where Hermione had left them and stuffed the Deluminator and the Slytherin's locket in his moleskin pouch. He turned to look around the place. His clothes were strewn all over. A deft flick of his wand and a Summoning Charm was all it took to gather them at his feet. He picked them up and stuffed them into his rucksack.

He shifted his attention to the study table overflowing with old manuscripts on curse breaking, manuals of ward crafting and rune translation dictionaries.

He had been working with Hermione on a modified ward structure to ensure better protection for the tent before they'd eavesdropped on the conversation that'd lead to the argument. He closed the diary in which he had been taking notes and picked up the various books and put them haphazardly into his backpack.

The treatise on ward crafting and curse breaking were a gift from Bill. He had been hesitant to go to Bill after what had happened between Fleur and him during the summer of his sixth year, but circumstances had forced his hand. As it stood, there was no in the Order who was as knowledgeable as Bill when it came to curse breaking. And, he really needed to expand his knowledge in that area, considering that he was quite sure that even if he did manage to come across any more of Voldemort's Horcruxes, he would first need to break through the various protections surrounding it.

Bill had really helped him out though, supplying Harry with some of his own ward building manuals and runic arrays of ward structure and teaching him some of the shortcuts, tips and techniques for basic ward crafting and curse breaking. His helpful nature had made Harry feel even more guilty about what had transipred between Fleur and him.

Everything done, he lifted the rucksack onto his shoulders, hardly feeling the weight that it should have been, courtesy of a Feather Light Charm.

He left the tent and walked out into the chilly night and turned around to look at it. It would take some time to pack the tent. He'd have to first undo the various wards that he and Hermione had set up around it.

Ward breakers in general had to search out the points where rune-tablets, ward-stones or even runes were carved, to undo a ward. However, since he himself had set up the ward, he already knew about its placement and would be able to fore go the complicated and oft irritating method of searching for them. It might be easy to find the location of a ward anchor or it might be akin to searching a needle in a haystack without magic. It all depended on the capability of the warder.

He started to circle the tent, stopping at the place where he had set up the first ward stone. The _Nauthiz _rune was put into effect to act as a proximity alarm and also as a Muggle Repelling Charm.

Harry moved his wand in an intricate pattern around the anchor as syllables of a magical chant passed through his lips while he sought to deactivate the ward. It only took him few seconds to complete the task, having been through the same procedure numerous times in recent days.

He had set up the wards in a pentagonal structure with each ward linked to the other, and each anchor at the vertices. While he'd deactivated the first ward in the five-tiered ward scheme, he couldn't actually pull off the rune-tablet yet or risk injury from the magical backlash of breaking a linked ward structure.

The next ward was the basic defence ward based on the _Algiz _and _Thurisaz _runes. It had few spells placed on it like _Protego Totalum, Tueor_ and S_alvio Hexum_ to defend against basic curses and hexes and repel them.

The last two penultimate wards had been the most difficult to set up and as such took a corresponding amount of time to nullify. They were respectively a wall of invisibility and the circle of fire. The former put a stationary Disillusionment Charm on the tent and the later, a recent addition by him created a ring of fire around the tent.

It was done with the intention that if they ever got surrounded by enemies, he could activate it and encircle the entire perimeter with magical fire, giving them precious few moments to make good on their escape.

Finally, all that was left was the masking ward. It was a simple ward that transformed the magical discharges left from casual magic usage into natural energy, mostly heat. This was perhaps the most important ward that he'd learned from Bill. The ministry might not be able to detect low level magic usage but any serious magic done in remote places would surely be detected by them.

He sat down on the ground tired from the procedure of bringing down the wards. He cursed his choice of Divination once again. It would have been so much easier for him if only he had taken Ancient Runes for his electives. Without the knowledge of runes as a background Bill had been forced to teach him just generic methods of creating and disabling wards. Even that had taken a lot of effort. It had been helpful that Hermione had done Ancient Runes and was there to help him out. But she was not there anymore and he couldn't rely on her for help.

He sighed and dragged his mind away from his friends. There was work to be done.

A few well-placed _Accio's_ dislodged the rune-tablets from the ground and gathered by his side. He placed them carefully in his rucksack and stood up.

It took him about two minutes to dismantle the tent and have it wrapped up into a small case that went into his back-pack. The function was available due to the numerous compression charms and enchantments that had been weaved into the tent. The only disadvantage was that the tent could only compress itself and the furniture it had come with. Any extra item would simply be evicted from it. It meant that they had to pack and unpack every time they moved. Something Ron had whined greatly about.

Everything was done, he just had to leave. The thought stopped him short in his tracks. Apparition was only possible to places one had been to, which greatly limited where he could hide in. It had been Hermione who had decided on the locations for their camps. He didn't want to go back to the places they had already been to and he didn't know any other secret hide-outs.

_Just a second_, thought Harry.

He did in fact know about a secret hide-out. It would be close to the enemy though. But then again, they said the best place to hide was actually in plain sight, so perhaps it was a good idea.

Destination decided, he turned around with deliberation and determination and Disapparated from the spot.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Edit: **Chapter has been slightly edited to smooth out some rough edges and correct the dialogues.

**Acknowledgements: **Thanks to _Aekiel_ for his immense help with the draft of the chapter. Thanks to the DLP crowd for their comments.

**Runes: **The runes are from _The Elder Futhark_ script.

_Nauthiz: _Danger, distress, confusion.  
_Algiz: _Protection, a shield.  
_Thurisaz: _Reactive force_, _directed force of destruction and defence.


	2. Salsa With A Snake

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes

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**

**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

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**  
Chapter 2**

**Salsa With A Snake**

The cold wind whipped at Harry's face whilst he stood on the edge of the precipice, a strange looking binocular in one of his hands and an old piece of parchment in his other. At a distance, he could see the monstrous sized castle of Hogwarts, that had once been his home; no more though.

The sun was on the horizon, about to set - Hogwarts looked beautiful in the light. Towards the left of the castle lay the Forbidden Forest and in front of him and a few hundred feet below was the magical village of Hogsmeade.

He turned and walked into the darkness of the cave that had once provided Sirius refuge in his fourth year.

It had been two weeks, since, he'd arrived here. Two weeks, in which he had been constantly monitoring both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade with his Omniculars and the Marauder's Map.

He sat down on some cushions that he had Conjured earlier and pulled out the Auror manuals from his rucksack, searching for spells that might help him when he would break into Hogwarts a few hours later.

The Auror text-books themselves had been a gift from Sirius. His godfather having learnt from Professor McGonagall that he'd wanted to be an Auror had bartered some of the priceless antiquities of the Black family with Mundungus, to acquire the books from his contacts within the magical black-market.

According to the _Secrets of the Darkest Art_, the book Hermione had pilfered from Dumbledore, a Horcrux can only be destroyed by a few things. The book only named two – Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre.

Conjuring Fiendfyre was probably not beyond his abilities. From what little information he had been able to gather about the spell, it required some serious magical power behind it. Another important requirement for the spell was the need for the caster to feel anger. Burning, roaring and all-consuming rage was what was required for the spell to work.

He could perhaps with some difficulty conjure Fiendfyre, controlling it however was another matter altogether. All of his reading materials, at least the one that discussed the curse agreed on one thing: controlling Fiendfyre was nigh impossible. The moment one called it forth, it would try to break free from the caster's control. The fire was almost alive in that regard. It was simply too dangerous for him to use it to destroy the Horcrux.

The only option left for him was to use Basilisk venom. Now, usually acquiring Basilisk venom would be impossible. Luckily for him, he already had a millennia old one dead, ready for him to utilise its venom. Unfortunately, it was inside Hogwarts.

Ron and Hermione's accusation about his inability to achieve anything, since, acquiring the locket had rung true enough. Even then destroying it was beyond his abilities. His mission to acquire the Basilisk venom was to prove them and also to himself that he could complete the task that Dumbledore had left him.

He munched on some sweets that he'd purchased from Honeydukes while he flipped through the pages of the book that he was pursuing.

He was lucky that there had been a Hogsmeade weekend during his two week stay in the cave. Rations had been running quite low. So, he'd donned his old Hogwarts uniform, did some basic Human Transfiguration on his face to change his facial structure. A Hair Lengthening Charm to hide his lightning-bolt scar and a Colour Change Charm on his hair to change it from black to deep brown and he was able to pass incognito in Hogsmeade. A short trip to the Three Broomsticks and he was easily able to fill up his ration supplies.

It hadn't been that difficult despite the presence of a few Death Eaters. After all, no one expected Harry Potter to go shopping in Hogsmeade when the entire Ministry was out looking for him. He'd easily hid himself amongst the crowd of numerous students, his altered looks allowing him the benefit of disguise.

He stopped flicking through the pages as an interesting curse caught his eye and he busied himself with learning it.

**O**

It was cold as Harry walked the streets of Hogsmeade, under his Invisibility Cloak, alone in the dead of the night. The cold made Harry wish that instead of spending his time learning a new curse a couple of hours ago, he should have searched for a Warming Charm to apply on his person. He hoped that the cold was the only thing he'd overlooked in his plans to infiltrate Hogwarts.

As he hurried his steps, mostly because of the cold and partly due to his own nervousness, his mind conjured up images of Ron and Hermione, as it was wont to do, the last few days.

Honestly, he missed them. No matter what he told himself otherwise, he really wanted them with him. In retrospect, it had been rash to Obliviate them.

_But damn it, it had been necessary._

He could see though, what had prompted Hermione to do what she had done. She was disillusioned with their lack of progress. Hell, even he'd doubts whether he could accomplish the task set forth by Dumbledore.

Infiltrating Hogwarts to acquire the Basilisk venom was the first step towards achieving something since acquiring the locket. He was sure of one thing though, Ron and Hermione definitely wouldn't have agreed on what he was about to do. So, perhaps it was better that they weren't there with him.

He looked up to see that he'd already arrived at his destination, Honeydukes.

His plan was quite simple. He intended to get into Hogwarts using the passage in the cellar of Honeydukes. Breaking into Honeydukes should be the most difficult part of his plan. From there he assumed that it wouldn't be so difficult to get to the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets with the use of the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map.

He didn't move to open the door of the sweet shop. He was pretty sure that a shop as popular as Honeydukes would be warded against any unauthorised entry.

His Detection Charm on the door told him that the door was indeed magically locked.

"No surprises there," muttered Harry.

The problem was the Locking Charm was tied to an alarm ward. Any attempt to break in would activate the alarm.

This was first his attempt in ward breaking outside practice sessions. Hopefully, his meagre knowledge would suffice.

After spending nearly half-an-hour throwing around various Detection Charms, he was tired and frustrated. He'd managed to find one ward anchor carved underneath a slab before the doorway. The rune _Othala_ was used and was linked to others in an complicated ward structure that he couldn't make head or tail of.

He bent over and placed his hands on his knees and heaved a tired sigh. He'd found a few other runes hidden in uncanny places, like the one beneath the window sill, but he was unsure of their meaning and purpose. Without knowing how a particular rune affected the ward, he wouldn't be able to disarm it. After all, what was the use of _Jera _- usually used in farming - in defending a building.

Harry was quite sure that it was only his inexperience that was shining through and that Bill could probably have easily dismantled the entire ward scheme. Maybe, if he had the leisure of time and perhaps Hermione's help, then he might have been able to bring down the ward.

Harry gave his head an angry shake. He made his choice when he'd decided to strike out on his own. There was no wishing how easier things could have been with Hermione's help.

He turned back. It was best not to attempt a break-in and ruin his only safe passage to Hogwarts.

**O**

"Jimmy, bring up the crate of Sugar Quill from the cellar. We're running short.**" **Harry watched from the sidelines outside Honeydukes - the gentle rays of the early morning sun passing right through his invisible self - as he saw a thick, fat man sit himself leisurely on a chair inside the shop and open the morning paper and bark an order to the aide.

After spending the entire previous night brain storming - how to break into Honeydukes - Harry had been hit with a brilliant plan. He didn't need to take down the wards to get into the sweet shop. All he needed was the Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the shop when it was opened early in the morning.

There had been a few loiterers around the streets of Hogsmeade when he'd reached the sweet shop, before the crack of dawn. He'd waited for shop to open for at least a few hours. The early morning sun was just coming up and and more people were coming out to go about their work, when Honeydukes was finally opened for business.

_So far, so good._

All he'd to do was to get into the cellar of Honeydukes without arousing the suspicion of the owner and the worker of the shop.

He slowly and carefully slid into the shop, keeping an eye trained on the owner, whose face was hidden behind the pages of the _Daily Prophet_. Harry's eyes caught sight of the front page of the newspaper. There was a large poster of him from the days of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with the caption underneath: **Undesirable Number One**. Curious as to what the Ministry was saying about him, he slid slightly closer to the man.

_Harry Potter, 17, has been charged with treason, fraternising with Dark creatures, engaging in Dark activities and is the main accused in the murder of the former Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. _

_Mr. Potter is currently on the run from the law, which has only strengthened the suspicions on the young wizard. Recently appointed Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Reginald Yaxley - who has become extremely popular with the masses for his strict enforcement of the law - when approached, said, "There's no doubt whatsoever about Potter's guilt. The fact that he has chosen to run away instead of facing the law like an honest citizen, has confirmed his culpability beyond question. He was also involved in a recent fracas within the Ministry in which he destroyed property and injured several ministry personnel and attempted to rescue several criminals ..."_

Harry wasn't able to read further as the man changed the page.

"Here it is, Mr. Flume. Where d'you want me to keep it?"

Harry whirled around at the sudden sound of a voice right behind him and back-pedalled frantically to avoid a hovering, giant wooden crate from crashing into him.

"Let me show you." A man's voice came from behind Harry, who flung himself aside and missed the large girth of Mr. Flume by inches as the man stood up from his chair and walked towards Jimmy.

Harry heaved a sigh of relief, his heart still thudding in his chest at the sudden close encounter that very nearly revealed him. He berated himself mentally at being so engrossed in the newspaper that he'd misplaced his situational awareness.

He watched the two men settle the crate and start putting things in proper place.

Harry looked at the discarded _Daily Prophet _and glanced back at the two men, busy with their work; he quickly put his hand out of the Cloak and snatched the paper from the table.

"Just put the Sugar Quills here … yes, right there … and the bars of chocolate in that shelf."

Harry slid behind the two men and eased himself into the storage cellar. Just as he remembered, the tiny rectangular room was filled with crated and boxes. There was a thin layer of dust on the floor, but it hardly took time for Harry to find the trap door.

He carefully pulled up the stone tile and slid himself inside the narrow hole, pulling the tile back close behind him.

"_Lumos!_" A bright flash from his wand lit a flight of stairs that disappeared into the darkness that his small halo of light couldn't pierce.

He took off his Invisibility Cloak and started descending the stairs.

Harry let out a laboured breath, the long seemingly unending staircase and the narrow passage and the stuffy air was tiresome.

It was at long last that he finally reached the end of the stairs. From there on the passageway became more twisted with lots of turns.

Soon, it seemed that he had reached the end of the tunnel as the passage formed an upward slope. Finally, he reached the very end of the tunnel. He was directly below the statue of the one-eyed crone.

The Marauder's Map showed the natural hustle and bustle of the students of Hogwarts. A Cushioning Charm on ground allowed himself to settle down comfortably. He'd wait until nightfall to enter Hogwarts.

With nothing else to do but bid his time, Harry started scanning the Prophet - lit from the glow of his wand - for any news on the current governance

He didn't find anything interesting other than the news about his fugitive status and a small snippet that Rudolphus Lestrange had become the Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation and that Arthur Weasley had been demoted to the level of a grunt.

It seemed to Harry that the government was running smoothly with the department heads being replaced by Death Eaters.

Harry flicked through the pages of Daily Prophet, waiting for night to fall, when he could finally enter Hogwarts.

**O**

Harry got up with a jerk and winced as the sudden motion cricked his neck. He had no idea when he'd fallen asleep. He checked his watch to see that it was already half-past twelve in the night. He jumped up with sudden alacrity and grimaced when the sharp motion pulled his sore muscles and whipped out the Marauder's Map.

The corridor above the tunnel was empty. He took out his wand and muttered the keyword - _dissendium _- to open the secret entrance of the passage. The hump of the one-eyed crone opened up and Harry squeezed himself through the narrow fissure.

He carefully draped the Invisibility Cloak over his body so that no dangling body part was visible, checked the Marauder's Map once again to take note of who were patrolling the corridors.

There were a pair of Slytherin students in the dungeons, one pair in the North Tower and another near Ravenclaw Tower, he remembered all of them from his days at Hogwarts.

_Maybe the Inquisitorial Squad has been brought back,_ thought Harry.

He found that Filch was in the Astronomy tower, Mrs. Norris was with him; Peeves was in the dungeons; McGonagall seemed to be patrolling the Great Hall. The Carrows were in their quarters, so were the other professors. And Snape was in the Headmasters Office.

It seemed to Harry that the Death Eaters had delegated the menial tasks to the other professors and students. As during his two week of near constant observation he had never seen them do any night time patrolling.

Seeing the small black blip of Snape in the Headmaster's Office made his blood boil. There was nothing better that he would like to do then go to the Headmaster's Office and proceed to beat him to a pulp. It grated his nerves to even think that after killing Dumbledore, the man had now ended up succeeding him as the Headmaster.

With a shake of his head he tuned out the thoughts of torturing Snape. He needed to concentrate on the job at hand.

Once again checking carefully to see that there was no one on the route between him and his destination, he started to walk towards the girl's bathroom on the second floor.

It didn't take him long to arrive at his destination. He had already marked the shortest route from the statue of the one-eyed crone on the fourth floor to the girl's bathroom on the second.

The door of the unused bathroom didn't make a sound as Harry slightly pushed it open and stuck his invisible head inside. Myrtle didn't seem to be present.

He eased himself into the girl's bathroom and closed the door behind him and made his way towards the entrance of the Chamber.

He stared at the engraving of the snake on the sink, and imagining it was a real snake, he hissed, "_Open_."

With a low grinding sound the sink slowly rose up in the air, and proceeded to separate itself into four different sections, leaving him the entrance to the Chamber. Harry glanced down the endless pipe that went straight to the tunnel of the Chamber.

Not dwindling any further, he pulled off his Invisibility Cloak and jumped into the hollow pipe.

The ride was shorter and rougher than what he remembered, but then again it had been a long time since his second year.

He got up from the floor and dusted himself off. It was dark in the tunnel. He remembered from his earlier visit that there were torches in the passage.

"_Incendio Solaris!_" he whispered, while moving his wand in a large arc.

The torches around him flared and ignited filling the tunnel with light.

He started walking towards the inner chamber where the statue of Salazar Slytherin was and where he'd killed the Basilisk; a sense of purpose heavy in his heart.

He came upon the doorway to the inner chamber, it was ajar.

A slow sense of victory started to fill his mind as he finally stood in the Chamber of Secrets.

Going through the same motion as he had earlier, he lit the torches in the room. The sight that greeted him though, removed the smile from his face.

The light from the torches lit up the chamber allowing him to the see the huge cavernous room. Gigantic pillars of stone encircled with statues of snakes with ruby red eyes rose high up in the air, disappearing in shadows towards the high ceiling. And there, right in front of him was the gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin.

But there was nothing else, not even the carcass of a Basilisk.

A disgusting and revolting smell in the chamber permeated throughout the chamber. Harry pinched his nose close with his fingers and cast some Air Cleansing Charm.

As he stepped inside the hallowed chamber, he noticed that there was a tremendous amount of rotten flesh, which was probably the reason for the vomit-inducing smell. Scraps of skin littered the area and the floor was caked with dried blood.

He was about to inspect further the mysterious case of the missing dead Basilisk, when suddenly he stopped short and stood stock still. An ominous feeling within him that there was someone standing right behind him.

Slowly and with exaggerating steadiness, he turned around, praying with all his might that it was just a case of him being excessively paranoid.

**O**

He found himself staring into a pair of dark crimson eyes.

It was Nagini.

For a second or two during which neither of them moved, Harry contemplated what Nagini was doing there.

All queries of Nagini's presence in the chamber rushed away from his mind as she struck at him with lightning speed. Reacting on pure instinct, Harry dived to avoid the oncoming blow.

A sharp flash of pain passed through his body as he hit the stone floor with his left shoulder. Harry, continuing his momentum, rolled over and snapped forward his wand and incanted, "_Percutio!_"

The pale blue Piercing Curse tore through the air crashed into the snake's hide. He knew from his experimentation with various curses, that this particular curse could pierce a hole through several planks of wood but against the snake it did no visible damage.

Nagini didn't even seem to notice that a curse had hit her and coiled around to face him.

"_Confringo!_" he shouted, as her body flew towards him. Nagini pivoted her head to avoid the spell from hitting her face. The curse ended up hitting her neck and he was forced to jump backwards to avoid her body from slamming into him.

Once again the curse seemed to do no real damage. He took a few steps back as Nagini once again faced him. She hissed and started to strike again; Harry dived again to evade her.

He saw out of the corner of his eye something black whizzing towards him and even before he hit the ground something struck him hard in the chest in mid-flight driving the air out of his lungs.

The force of the impact changed his trajectory and sent him sailing backwards through the air. His flight was cut short as his back slammed into the hard unforgiving wall. He slid down and his bottom struck the ground.

Coughing some blood, Harry managed to get up on his feet favouring his chest heavily. The blow must have cracked a few ribs. He'd managed to avoid the snake's head from striking him but was unable to avoid the tail that had whipped out of nowhere.

He glanced towards the snake to see Nagini slithering towards him. He wouldn't be able to evade her anymore, as sharp stabs of pain flashed through his torso.

He moved his wand in an intricate pattern and tapped his knees and murmured aloud, "_Divum Altus!_"

A golden mist oozed out of his wand and encircled his legs. Muscles in his calf and thigh contracted till they were painfully taut. The spell that he'd found in the Auror books allowed one to jump high altitudes.

He looked up to see that Nagini had cut off all escape routes. He was cornered. Behind him was the wall and in front him was a giant ugly snake.

A giant ugly snake.

Realisation struck him like a rampaging Hippogriff. He was a Parseltongue, he could order Nagini in Parseltongue.

"_Stop._" Harry commanded in Parseltongue to the snake, even as Nagini spread her hood to strike him and finish him off. The sudden command in Parseltongue though stopped her. She seemed almost hesitant, that is, if snakes could look hesitant. Flicking out her tongue she hissed.

And suddenly without any warning she struck with blinding ferocity. Harry bent his legs, feeling as if tightly compressed springs had replaced his knees and with all his might leapt high in the air. The magic infusing his legs allowed him to soar through the air.

In mid-flight Harry glanced down to see the giant snake's head smash against the ground, exactly where he'd been moments earlier. He jabbed his wand downward and cursed, "_Ferveo Acervix!_"

A glob of acid went streaming towards Nagini's head while Harry carefully manoeuvred his flight to land atop the snake.

A violent tremor racked Nagini's body threatening to throw Harry off her. A pleased smile formed on his face, it seemed that his plan had worked. Working quickly he snapped off a powerful Shredding Curse on Nagini's back. The small steely grey arc of magic that could've ripped a man's limb off, did no more than create a shallow surface wound. Wasting no further time Harry jumped off her body.

Nagini's body continued to thrash around. She stuck her forked tongue out hissed violently, before coiling her body around herself to face Harry.

As Harry watched Nagini whirl around, he noticed that her left eye was a mess. It looked like it'd been boiled. Apparently, his plan hadn't worked out as well as he'd thought; her right eye was still intact.

Seeking to correct his mistake, he once again sent the Acid Conjuring Spell towards her. She tilted her head to avoid the spell and flung at him, simultaneously uncoiling her body behind her.

Harry jumped back once again to avoid her body.

And so began a deadly dance of the wizard and the snake.

It was a stalemate, with neither side winning.

Harry would simply use his magic infused legs to dodge Nagini's attack and the huge columns present in the Chamber restricted Nagini's free movement.

Nagini herself was almost impervious to most of Harry's spells and she evaded those that could deal some damage.

The stalemate though was not going to last for long. His chest hurt terribly and he couldn't breathe in too deeply. And the magic that enabled him to jump such great heights also handicapped him. His leg muscles and tendons were so taut that he could hardly walk let alone run. Muscle cramps had started to develop in his legs and soon the spell would run its course and he wouldn't be able to evade Nagini anymore.

He dodged once more as Nagini attacked again. Harry hid himself behind one of the massive pillars in the chamber and gulped in much needed air even as the heaving motion of his chest racked his body with pain.

Leaning out slowly to peek out of the side of the pillar, Harry was surprised to find that Nagini was no longer where she'd been.

He was about to move out of his temporary sanctuary when suddenly something hit him hard in the chest. And before Harry could even do something he found himself pinned against the pillar as Nagini had coiled herself around it, trapping him.

Harry glanced up to see Nagini's head swivel around to face him. Her working eye, furious and angry seemed to bore a hole through his head. A forked tongue came out of her jaw and swiped at his face. He grimaced, feeling as if a sand-paper had been rubbed across his face.

Nagini pulled her head back and tightened herself around Harry. Black spots appeared in his vision as Nagini slowly but steadily crushed him. There was no escape from this. His wand was still clutched in his hand but it was pasted against the wall. He couldn't even move his finger let alone his hand to cast a spell on her.

He got desperate –his vision started to dim- and desperate times called for desperate measures.

His wand arm was fixed against the pillar; he couldn't move it. However, the spell he'd in mind didn't require any complex wand movements. And it was potent enough that it should release him from Nagini's hold. The problem being that at such close proximity he was liable to damage his own-self.

Harry tried to breathe only to find that he was unable to suck in air. Without worrying about the consequences, Harry cast a powerful Blasting Charm silently.

'_Vestatio!'_

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then suddenly -

A tremendous explosion ripped through the chamber without any warning, shaking the entire chamber slightly with its power.

Nagini's body rapidly uncoiled around him, freeing him in the process. As Harry fell down to the floor heavily, he glanced around to see Nagini retreat somewhat.

A very large chunk of the stone pillar around which he'd been trapped was blown away to splinters. Harry gasped as he looked down at his body; his entire right side was covered in blood. Stone chirps were protruding from his leg as and lower torso. Harry attempted to get up only to find that his legs were unable to support his weight.

Harry took advantage of his enemy's distraction and proceeded to undo the Anti Gravity Spell on his legs. He jabbed his wand in his legs and muttered the counter. The golden mist that had clung on to his legs slowly seeped back into the tip of his wand giving it a dull grey glow. Harry lifted his wand high in the air and vigorously shook it. The halo of light encircling his wand slowly dissipated into thin air.

As his taut muscles relaxed, he became aware of the tremendous pain in his leg. He gritted his teeth to keep himself from crying out.

"_Kashaf'mad!_" Cast Harry, the Arabic spell lessened the pain of a specific area by dulling the nerves to any external stimuli, the Auror books had claimed. Despite the charm Harry's leg still hurt terribly, even though it kept the worst of the injury at bay.

"_Ferula!" _muttered Harry and conjured bandages wrapped up his damaged leg.

With some difficulty and plenty of pain, despite the Pain Relieving Charm, he was somehow able to stand on his feet. Only to see that Nagini ready herself to strike again. Harry was handicapped and wouldn't be able to escape her this time.

He needed to finish it and finish it at that very instant.

As Nagini slowly slithered towards him, Harry thought of using the Killing Curse, which was guaranteed to kill any living being. However, he didn't even know how to cast it and more importantly, he'd no idea of the consequence of casting the Killing Curse on a Horcrux. His books had been clear about that part: a Killing Curse is meant to kill a living being, as the Horcrux is not living, it couldn't be destroyed be the curse. Of course, the books didn't take in the precedence of a living organism as a Horcrux.

Anger filled his veins, what hope did he have to face the Dark Lord if he couldn't even face his snake?

Anger gave way to cold fury as the need to kill Nagini – who'd almost reached him - overwhelmed his rational thinking. There was only one way he could destroy the Horcrux-snake now, and he was going to do it.

Damned be the consequences.

His jaw was set firmly and his wand was tightly clasped with both of his hands; Harry roared, _"Fiendfyre!"_

There was a sudden rushing noise as if the very air was being sucked upon and a blazing inferno of fire leapt out of his wand and Nagini rapidly slithered back to avoid being immolated.

The temperature of the chamber increased by scores as the flames proceeded to encompass everything. Such was the heat of the fire that even at a distance Harry could feel himself getting burnt.

He felt the fire trying to break free from his grasp and he'd to deliberately try to keep it under control. On the other side of the chamber he could see Nagini trying to escape the flames.

Harry would later describe the sensation controlling the cursed fire as attempting to grasp water in his fist. No matter how much one tried, water would eventually flow out from between the fingers. The feeling was similar; the only difference was, instead of the water he felt like he'd grasped acid in his fist.

Harry tried to maintain his control over the spell, but it was for naught. He faltered for a second and the fire managed to break free.

He took a few steps back and bent over, breathing heavily. His entire body was aching and attempting to control the cursed fire had taken a lot out of him.

Harry glanced upwards to see that fire blazing uncontrolled, as it advanced. The flames leapt higher and higher and Harry watched curiously as a tongue of fire detached itself from the inferno and leapt high in the air and formed some kind of distinct shape in mid-air. With a sudden clarity, he realised that it was coming towards him and jumped backwards in panic to avoid it. His injured right leg unable to withstand the sudden movement gave out and he fell down on his back.

The glob of fire, which Harry recognised to be in the form of a raven, crashed at the place where he was standing moments earlier. He looked at the roaring fire to see more distinct shapes forming. An ethereal form of Hippogriff was starting to take form, a phoenix made of pure fire leapt out and a giant snake's shape was somewhat distinct in the fire.

It was then Harry realized what the book had meant.

_Uncontrolled Fiendfyre has a singular intention, which is to immolate the conjurer of the cursed fire._

Though he didn't remember reading anywhere that fire took the forms of magical beings.

Hurriedly scrambling up to his feet, Harry made a run for the doorway of the inner chamber. He gritted his teeth against the pain as every time his right leg hit the floor, a spike of white hot shock would assault his senses. But he couldn't give up, because if he faltered, it would definitely mean his death. And he didn't particularly fancy being burned to death by the magical fire he himself had conjured.

He gave a backward glance, the phoenix was flying towards him and a pegasi was nearly nipping on his ankles. He was still a few yards away from the door; he wasn't going to make it.

Seeing no other option Harry dived towards the doorway and twisted in mid air, he cast a Banishing Charm at an angle to the floor. Now, obviously he couldn't move earth with a Banishing Charm. The result was the reaction which sent him whizzing through the air at a heightened speed, apart from nearly dislodging his arm from its socket.

He put his left hand into his trousers' pocket and pulled out the Slytherin's locket and threw it towards the ethereal beings of fire that were chasing him. As he went flying past the entrance of the chamber he hissed, _"Close." _

The doorway screeched shut just as the cursed fire reached it.

Harry flight came to an end as he hit the ground with his back. The impact jolted his entire body.

He managed to get his head up to look at the closed entry way of the chamber. The fire had not managed to get past.

He had a sudden urge to laugh uproariously. He had come to the Chamber of Secrets to acquire Basilisk venom to destroy the Horcrux, only to find that there was no dead Basilisk and in its place there was Voldemort's familiar, which also happened to be a Horcrux. He'd managed to destroy both the Horcruxes by conjuring a cursed fire so powerful that it'd almost ended up burning himself.

It was ironical, because the only reason he had chosen to come here in the first place was that he'd deemed using Fiendfyre to destroy Horcruxes as being too dangerous.

His vision dimmed as exhaustion finally caught with him and he slowly lost consciousness.

* * *

**  
Author's Note****:**

**Edit:** The Honeydukes break-in scene was re-written and certain grammatical errors were corrected.

**Acknowledgement: **Thanks to the DLP crowd for their comments.

**Runes: **The runes are from _The Elder Futhark_ script.

_Othala_: Property.  
_Jera_: Harvest.

**Review: **I'll try to answer each and every review that I get.

**Twitter: **You can also follow me on Twitter. Link is in my profile (homepage).


	3. Detention With A Death Eater

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes

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**

**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

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**Chapter 3**

**Detention With A Death Eater**

A groan of pure agony escaped Harry's lips. He had been drifting between pained consciousness and blissful sleep for the past few minutes.

Slowly, and with a tremendous effort that sent ripples of pain through his entire body, Harry lifted his head. The world swam in front of his eyes for a few seconds before it stabilised. A spasm of ache shook him as he attempted to sit up and deep ragged breathing filled up the narrow tunnel as the small effort tired his injured physique. He glanced down at his battered body and grimaced at the sight of his mangled leg.

The bandage had turned a dull brown, as the blood flowing out of the wound dried; but the worst was a jagged piece of dirty white bone that had torn the bandage, and was poking out in plain view.

He was in a bad condition. Notwithstanding his fractured leg, his entire body was in so much pain, that he felt like he had been trampled by a herd of Hippogriffs.

While he'd the forethought to pack some healing potion and salves with him considering the dangerous nature of his mission, he'd no idea what it would take to heal a broken bone.

At least he'd managed to destroy not one but two Horcruxes, including the one that was supposed to be the most difficult.

Harry frowned; there were only two people who could access the Chamber, one being him and the other, Voldemort. _So, what did Voldemort want with the Basilisk carcass and why keep Nagini here? _A sharp jab of pain flashed through his consciousness and stopped his reflections. Gritting his teeth, he waited for the pain to abate.

He needed to escape Hogwarts, but first he'd to check whether the cursed fire had actually destroyed the Horcruxes.

Harry decided against reapplying the Pain Relieving Charm on his leg. Abusing that spell could render his leg paralytic. He, however, replaced the bloodied bandages with fresh ones and with great difficulty and extraneous pain he managed to stand up.

He walked towards the chamber doors, careful enough to keep the pressure on his right leg. He hadn't taken two steps before the two pieces of broken bones in his leg scraped with each other. White hot pain flared in his cranium and a blood-curdling scream tore through his throat.

A few moments later, found Harry staring at the ceiling of the tunnel, as the sharp pain turned into a dull throb. He'd no idea when his legs had given out and he'd fallen down. There was no way he could walk on that leg.

Gingerly, Harry sat up and muttered, "_Kashaf'mad!_" pointing his wand at his broken leg. Under current circumstances, he was willing to risk over-usage of that spell if it allowed him to escape Hogwarts. Despite the charm, he had to ease up on his right leg. There was only so much pain the spell would block.

Twirling his wand, he Conjured a wooden walking stick. It wasn't decorated like Lucius Malfoy's was; but it would get the job done. Gripping the stick tightly in his hand, he stood up leaning heavily on the stick.

Harry hobbled forward and stopped in front of the doorway.

"_Open_," he hissed in parseltongue and the twin snakes engraving on the door slid aside and the doorway parted in the middle.

A blast of heat assaulted him, burning his body as the gateway opened and was immediately followed by a noxious and suffocating gas. A racking cough took over him, and he had to step back.

"_Ebulio!"_

A small elliptical bubble formed at the tip of his wand, enlarging rapidly. Harry bought the bubble close to his face and let it touch him. It immediately attached onto him and soon had his entire head covered, forming a spherical shape.

Harry stepped into the chamber, protected by the Bubble Head Charm and felt like he'd stepped into a large oven. While the fire had died out, the chamber was still very hot.

His eyes didn't find any trace of the locket that he'd thrown into the chamber. The heat must have been strong enough to vaporise it.

There was only a scattering of ashes, _remains of Nagini, _thought Harry. Nothing else remained of her. The skin, flesh and bones - the fire had burned everything. A savage grin formed on Harry's face. For all his injuries, Nagini had not died an easy death.

_Two down, two more left to go, _thought Harry.

And for the first time, since, he'd separated from Ron and Hermione, Harry felt that success just might be within his grasp.

He walked out of the Chamber and leant heavily against the wall and took deep gulps of fresh air as he removed the Bubble Head Charm. While he may have succeeded in doing more than just what he'd planned, that success hadn't been without its cost. He slid down the rough wall of the tunnel and sat down on his haunches, with his broken right leg stretched out in front of him. He stared at his freshly bandaged leg which had started to turn a light crimson as blood slowly seeped out of his shin, where the broken bone had pierced his shin from inside out.

He was wounded … badly. And while he may be able to bear up with most of his injuries, no matter how badly they hurt. Something had to be done about his leg. And his skills didn't quite extend to healing broken bones.

The idea to escape Hogwarts and go to a Muggle hospital entered his mind. It wouldn't take more than a few Confundus Charms to make the doctors willing to mend his leg. He immediately discarded the idea. Muggles couldn't heal broken bones as fast as wizards. It would take too much time, time that he couldn't afford to waste.

_Who else would know how to heal a broken bone?_

He could go to Madam Pomfrey under the guise of the night, and persuade her to help him and keep the entire thing quite. He abandoned that idea too. There were too many variables. And while he knew Madam Pomfrey, he wasn't quite sure he could trust her in this situation. She was also not a member of the Order.

He rejected the idea of going to McGonagall either. While he was sure that she would render assistance. Harry couldn't be sure she wouldn't take him to the Order to interrogate him about his injuries and of his presence in Hogwarts.

That left only one person, Horace Slughorn.

The man might be able and willing to help. Harry debated whether to seek his help or not.

Harry had come to know the Potions Master quite well during the previous year. After he'd learnt the prophecy and seen that Dumbledore was only showing him Pensieve memories and not teaching him advanced magic, as he and Hermione had speculated, he decided to learn new and powerful spells on his own from the Auror books that Sirius had gifted him.

He'd decided against inviting Hermione. She hadn't taken well to his out-performing her in Potions and had constantly harped that he was cheating to get better marks. Harry didn't quite understand what he did that comprised of cheating. He wasn't after all claiming someone else's work as his own, only following different instructions to get better results.

Harry had kept the peace though and didn't retort back. He, however, kept the Auror books a secret from both Hermione and Ron. The former, because Harry was quite sure that Hermione would be displeased to see him possessing restricted materials and the latter, because while Ron might not care that he was illegally accessing restricted Ministry material he might mention it to Hermione, negligently if not deliberately.

Understanding the Auror books however, was a chore onto itself. They were obviously meant for someone who had completed Hogwarts. Furthermore, the books were only supposed to supplement the instructions that trainees would receive at the Auror Academy. Yet, there he was trying to comprehend stuff, undoubtedly advanced for his age without even having completed his Hogwarts education.

He had never been a diligent student while at Hogwarts and that had cost him a lot as he was often left fumbling, trying to decipher the books. He learnt this though, that there was more to magic than simply waving your wand and uttering incantations.

His lack of knowledge of magical theory was the cause of much frustration. He was quite sure that if only he'd asked for Hermione's help, things would have gone much easier. But he was adamant in his decision and wished to achieve success on his own. The prophecy named him after all and not somebody else.

He soon found out though that there wasn't much that he could do alone. He needed someone experienced enough to help him out.

He'd at first thought of approaching Dumbledore, but had rejected the idea. Dumbledore had been very busy and he wasn't sure whether the Headmaster could afford the time other then what they already spent discussing Riddle's past. Also, Harry hadn't been sure that going to Dumbledore was the best idea, since, after all what advanced magic could the Headmaster have taught him when Harry didn't even know the basics.

Under such circumstances, Harry was quite sure that even if Dumbledore did agree to teach him, he'd simply be passed off to someone in the Order to learn from. After all, he was far from the level where he could demand the Headmaster's personal attention. Harry had feared that in such an eventuality, Snape would be asked to teach him. The chance of that being even more then, with Snape being the Defence teacher. And Harry didn't quite fancy learning defence from Snape.

All this had resulted into him asking for Slughorn's help. He had already seen that Potions Master was a very talented wizard and heard Dumbledore say so, when he'd visited him. And if the Dark Lord did indeed want Slughorn in the ranks of his Death Eaters, there was no doubt that he was an extremely skilled wizard.

So, Harry had asked for Slughorn's help. The Potions teacher had at first been sceptical but Harry had insisted and mentioned his mother in the conversation, and how important it was that he, the Boy-Who-Lived be able to defend himself, especially then, when Lord Voldemort was obviously back. Harry's rather persistent requests and arguments had forced the man to yield.

Two days of class a week with Slughorn during his sixth year had shown Harry that Slughorn was indeed a highly accomplished wizard. While the man was a Potions teacher, his skills were not limited to that. He was quite brilliant in Transfiguration and also more than capable with curses. His knowledge also extended to the darker forms of magic. Harry had learned more from the man then he'd learned in his entire stay at Hogwarts.

He was quite sure that Dumbledore knew about his private lessons with Slughorn, even though he'd never mentioned them. Perhaps, it was for this reason that Dumbledore had asked him to retrieve a memory from Slughorn, mentioning that Slughorn was an accomplished Occlumens.

This had led Harry to ask Slughorn for lessons in Occlumency which the Potions Master had easily granted. His teaching however, had ended rather abruptly when Harry had foolishly asked him about Horcruxes, hoping that the man liked him enough to tell him about it. Harry had later apologised to Slughorn profusely and the man had resumed his lessons.

He had also managed to retrieve the memory from Slughorn with the help of _Felix Felicis _during a drunken bout at Hagrid's hut, during the burial of his acromantula, Aragog.

Harry was quite sure that Slughorn liked him; he however was under no delusions as to why Slughorn had helped him out in the first place. He was the Boy-Who-Lived and as Dumbledore had mentioned once, Slughorn liked the company of the powerful and popular. It was his fame more than anything else that had made Slughorn so helpful the previous year.

And if Harry had learned anything about the man, it was that Slughorn was an opportunist. Helping the Boy-who-Lived was well and good last year, he was at the pinnacle of his fame, with the papers praising him for his courage and being so popular amongst the masses. Things had changed drastically since then. Voldemort had taken over and Harry had gone form being the Boy-Who-Lived to being the Undesirable No. One. Harry wasn't sure that Slughorn wouldn't just take advantage of his weakness and hand him over to the Ministry, to curry more favour.

As such going to Slughorn was out. Harry sighed and looked down at his mangled leg. He couldn't seek help, whatever needed to be done, he'd need to do himself. He was oblivious about how to mend a broken bone. Despite his numerous injuries during his stay at Hogwarts he had never broken a bone before. He had once, during his second year in a Quidditich match, when Dobby had enchanted a bludger to attack him. But Lockhart had vanished his broken bone before he could go to Madam Pomfrey, who had been forced to regrow the bones in his right hand.

Harry's eyes suddenly lit up as an idea hit him. He couldn't mend the broken pieces of bone in his left leg. He could however, simply vanish them and regrow them with _Skele Gro_, the potion Pomfrey had used.

The spell to vanish the bones would be in the Auror books, he was sure of it. There were a host of spells that acted on bones in those books. All he needed was the _Skele Gro_ potion. It wasn't something that he had with him already.

Harry was sure that he could just go to the Hospital Wing under the Cloak and steal a beaker of _Skele Gro_.

Plan made, Harry made to move. Using the Conjured walking stick as a support, Harry hauled himself to his feet. With slow steps, he hobbled towards the pipe, through which he'd come.

As he came to the tunnel that had taken him down to the Chamber of Secrets from the girl's bathroom, he met with a glitch in his plans. He hadn't exactly considered on how to get out of the Chamber of Secrets. The last time around Fawkes had been with him to carry him out.

He wondered for a moment. It wasn't as if Slytherin would built such a huge tunnel and slid down it do access the Chamber.

"_Stairs,_" Harry whispered in parseltongue, as a sudden thought came to him.

Immediately, a rumbling noise disturbed the silence. Harry looked on curiously as the ground slowly rose and then straightened out. And slowly a flight of stairs grew in the tunnel and rose into the darkness towards the entrance.

Harry smiled as he climbed the first stairs, which turned into a grimace as the motion disturbed his broken leg and sent a sharp jab of pain to his cranium. He could hardly climb all the way to the top.

His worries soon vaporised as he heard a low grinding sound, the kind one hears when two pieces of stones are smashed together. And the staircase slowly rose upwards, like a giant, primitive escalator.

Harry heaved a sigh of relief and settled down lazily, allowing the magical staircase to carry him out of the Chamber.

**O**

A bright light filled his visions the moment Harry stepped out into the bathroom. He covered his eyes with his free hand and blinked rapidly. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he found that sunlight was streaming in through the ventilators.

It was morning.

He must have been unconscious longer than what he'd assumed. Harry thought for a moment to abandon his plan to raid the Infirmary, but a jab of pain from his broken leg discouraged him.

Harry wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around him and pulled out the Marauder's map. He moved out of the bathroom after carefully noting the lack of people in the adjacent corridor.

The Hogwarts Infirmary wasn't far from the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. If not for his injuries, he could have reached there within a few minutes. But as things stood, he'd to evade any person and entity in the castle and be mindful of his leg.

He passed a few students as he walked by out of their sight. It was early morning and most people, he assumed were going to the Great Hall for breakfast.

As Harry turned a corner, he came upon a long corridor. He was fairly close to the Infirmary. He started walking, careful to ease up on his leg. He'd nearly reached the end of the corridor when he saw a group of five boys coming in from the other end.

The boys, all of them Slytherin, and Harry recognised Zabini and Nott from the group were swaggering towards him. Harry's eyes widened as he realised that as they were walking they would surely crash into him. The breadth of the corridor wasn't enough for Harry to manoeuvre himself around the boys.

Harry immediately looked back. The corridor was long enough that he wouldn't reach the end of it before the boys would catch up with him. There were no narrow fissures or suits of armour for him to hide and wait for them to pass.

As he looked around frantically, Harry noticed an oak door. He immediately hobbled towards it. He tried to open it, only to find it locked. He acted fast and pulled out his wand and whispered the Unlocking Charm. The door clicked open and Harry carefully eased himself inside the room. No sooner had he squeezed himself in, he heard the thumping of boots outside the door, signalling that the boys had just passed him by. Harry heaved a sigh of relief and immediately gritted his teeth as his mangled leg let himself know that it wasn't happy at being forced to use.

Harry waited for the pain to abate and curiously watched the room he was in. It was some kind of office, with a desk to one side, with papers and documents strewn haphazardly on it.

He looked around and saw a number of picture frames that adorned the walls.

They were pictures from Quidditch games, he realised. He took a step towards a picture that depicted him as a chaser making a spectacular goal. Harry frowned, he wasn't a chaser; he'd never played a chaser. It struck Harry suddenly; he wasn't looking at his picture, but of his father.

There were dozens of such pictures. Most showed someone making a spectacular move in a Hogwarts Quidditch game. They weren't limited to his father alone. There were a few of him too. A smile lit Harry's face, as he saw one that was undoubtedly from his first game; catching a snitch with his mouth. Ironically, that very snitch happened to be present in his moleskin pouch. There were pictures of other players too, ones he didn't recognise. He was sure he saw one of Charlie Weasley.

He looked around the room, it was filled Quidditch peripherals and equipments. He even found some old _Shooting Star_ brooms in a cupboard.

_This might help ...,_ thought Harry as he picked up a broom.

Harry abandoned the walking stick he'd Conjured earlier and used the broom instead.

He left Madam Hooch's office soon, and was on his way to the Infirmary.

As he stood outside the doors of the Infirmary, he checked the Marauder's Map to see if anyone was inside. All he found was the unmoving dots of Ginny and Neville.

Carefully, Harry opened the door and stepped in. As the Marauder's Map had shown, Ginny and Neville were lying on two beds. He walked over to their unconscious bodies.

Shock registered in Harry as he saw sharp cuts on Neville's face and arms. Repeated use of a mild _Cutting Curse_, he thought angrily. Ginny, on the other hand looked unharmed, if extremely pale. He remembered that Phineas had mentioned that they were sent to detention with Carrow.

Harry looked at Ginny's listless lips, her pale face and closed eyes. She looked as if she was just sleeping. All the fond times he'd spent with her, kissing in the broom-cupboards, snuggling in the Gryffindor common room; they came hurtling to him. It had been wonderful, the more innocent times spent with her.

He sighed in regret, he felt guilty for starting a relationship with her. While he'd definitely been attracted towards Ginny, he wondered if his relationship with her was anything more than a manifestation of his want to show Fleur, that he too had moved on.

It was foolish and idiotic of him to think that way. Fleur had never talked to him after that night, had never mentioned the possibility of the two of them as anything other than casual friends. A mistake of one night - which Harry was sure was what Fleur labelled that night as – didn't start a relationship. Yet, Harry had felt the need to show her that, that night had mattered as little to him as it'd to her, even if it weren't true.

A foolish notion, Harry was sure of that and the girl before him had suffered for it. He never should have taken up with Ginny.

He shook his head to bring himself out of reminiscence's of regrets. He'd a job to accomplish. Quickly Harry left their bedside to go to the cabinet that was at the end of the large hall.

He tapped the lock of the cabinet with his wand and whispered the Unlocking Charm. With a small click the cabinet door fell open.

Harry smiled; it was going good so far.

He put his hand out of the Invisibility Cloak and started pulling different vials of potion. A dark red looking potion that he recognised as the Pepper Up Potion, he shoved into the satchel that he Conjured to carry the vials.

The small bottles clinked together as Harry started haphazardly filling up the satchel with various potion phials. Wit-Sharpening potion, Invigorating Draught, even an ampoule of Boil Curing Potion, anything that Harry deemed useful, he took.

He pulled out another one from the cabinet and squinted to read the tag on it. It read _'Skele-Gro'_.

"Gotcha," muttered Harry and let the beaker fall into bulging bag, filled with potion ampoules that he'd wrapped around his waist.

**O**

A gust of cold air tickled Harry's neck, moments before a battering ram of force struck his back and sent him hurtling through the air.

His body was forced through a head-spinning lurch which came to an immediate halt as he crashed into the stationary wall. When Harry came to himself, he found him to be lying on his back on the cold, sterilized floor of the Infirmary. He had lost his Cloak and broom somewhere during the forced tumble he'd taken. His fingers wrapped around the hilt of his wand and he lifted his head up from the floor to look at his attacker.

"Stealing are we," shouted a stocky woman with dark hair, standing by the doorway to the Infirmary. "T'ch, tch, that won't do at all."

Harry groaned as he pulled his body to a sitting position. He frowned, as he looked at the woman who had attacked him, his eyes widened in recognition; she was one of the Death Eaters present during Dumbledore's death, Alecto Carrow.

Recognition flashed in Alecto's eyes just as Harry remembered the Death Eater. She lifted her wand to her throat and shouted, "POTTER," her magically magnified voice resounding through the castle, "IS IN TH AHH ..."

A well aimed Foe Hammer from Harry prevented her from finishing and sent her spinning like a top through the air.

Assuming her to be knocked out, Harry tried to get up on his feet. Alecto's counter volley missed him by inches and hit the wall behind him, which groaned as it shook slightly.

She wasn't as out of it as he'd thought and had already gotten back to her feet, though she seemed to favour her shoulder slightly.

Harry flicked his wand and muttered, "_Inilendio!_" and sent another Foe Hammer towards her. The powerful bludgeoner missed her even as she retaliated with a dirty looking, thick beam of dark brown curse.

A Shield Charm that Harry raised just in the nick of time took the burnt of her curse, but the strength of the spell sent Harry skidding backwards.

Her wand flashed and she gave a cackling laugh, a flat blade of magic flew towards him. Harry scrambled frantically to avoid it. Despite his evasion, he hissed in pain as the curse sliced his biceps; warm hot blood spilled from the wound.

Harry gritted his teeth against the pain and looked at Alecto with burning rage in his eyes.

"Angry, are we, little boy," Alecto jeered.

Harry gave his wand a sharp flick and the door of the Infirmary banged close taking Carrow by surprise and slammed her on the face, as Harry's silent Banishing Charm hit the doorway.

"_Ferula!_" muttered Harry, and conjured bandages wrapped up his sliced biceps, stemming the flow of blood.

The moments respite came to an end as a loud crash emitted, Harry whirled around to see the door of the Infirmary being torn out of its hinges and sent careening through the air.

In the doorway stood Alecto Carrow, face bloodied and fury evident in her posture. A dark angry red curse flew from the tip of Alecto's wand towards Harry, who limped sideways to dodge the spell.

Carrow stalked towards him angrily, every so often throwing a curse. Harry in his battered condition found himself overwhelmed by her spells.

"_Flippendo!_" whispered Harry pointing his wand toward an empty bed, while simultaneously ducking his head, as a curse passed over his head and hit the wall behind him tearing off the mortar.

The hospital bed gave a violent lurch and flipped high into the air.

"_Pango!_" cast Harry in quick succession, hitting the bed with a Hammering Hex and sent it spinning towards Alecto at a tremendous velocity. An impact looked imminent -

– Suddenly, there was a small _bang _as the bed was blasted out of the air, shattered into pieces.

She slashed her wand towards Harry, even as he cast, "_Defodio!_" Harry felt something hit the side of his leg hard enough to remove his footing from the ground.

The earth rushed up to meet him, and his face slammed hard against the ground. Stars flashed in front of him at the impact. Tears fell from his eyes giving his vision a glazed look and his ears rang from the force of the impact.

He slowly twisted around his body to look at Alecto and realised that his ears weren't ringing, Carrow was screaming bloody murder.

The Gouging Curse had torn out part of her cheeks, showing bleeding gums and bloodied teeth. It looked as if it'd been clawed out, with some of the flesh still left hanging, giving her face a horrendous look.

Carrow looked at him, murder in her eyes and angrily swiped her wand at him.

Harry, who was using his hands as leverage in an attempt to get back on his feet found a giant force slam into his back, pushing him forcibly into the ground.

He shakily lifted his arm to cast a counter curse, when it was blown aside, his non-verbal Banishing Charm missing Carrow completely.

He didn't even get to take a breath as another one of Carrow's spell caught his torso, bodily lifting him off the ground and spun him through the air. His momentum came to a rest as he impacted face first against the wall.

Harry gave a small grunt of pain as blood oozed out of his forehead and dripped down the side of his broken glasses that hung limply from his ear. Small slivers of glass from his spectacles had embedded itself into his cheeks. Again, he tried to blindly lift his wand, when one of Carrow's spell swatted his entire arm aside.

"_Poena Tribuo!"_ Carrow gave a bloodied-croak and Harry's world was rent apart with pain. He wasn't aware as he screamed himself hoarse.

And as swift as the pain had come it was gone, replaced with a dull ache in his entire body.

Every movement was an agony. He felt as if someone was hammering his head as he looked up hazily at Carrow, standing a few feet away from him.

She pointed her wand at him and the red glow on the tip of her wand was quite distinctive of a Cruciatus Curse.

Harry's hand was nearly catatonic and hardly responding to his commands. Yet, with a mighty effort Harry managed to flick the wand, loosely clasped in his fingers.

_'Waddiwassi!'_

The silent charm lurched a few ampoules of potion that had fallen to the ground when she'd first attacked him, and sent them speeding towards Carrow.

Alecto blasted the phials of potion moments before they could hit her face. Harry gave a small disheartened sigh as his quick attempt at a diversion failed.

A dark mist of red fluid from the broken vials floated in air covering Alecto's face, who rapidly backed way.

Carrow swiped her wand to fan away the mist created from the broken vial of the potion, which Harry now recognised as the Pepper Up Potion.

As the air cleared, Harry saw Alecto frantically rubbing her eyes with her fist.

Harry's heart jumped a beat as he realised his stroke of luck. Not wasting another moment, he lifted a shaking arm towards her from his prone position on the ground, using her distraction to his advantage and muttered, _"Fracta!"_

The pale dirty ochre bolt of magic slammed into her thigh.

A resounding crack rung through the air and a deep-guttural scream of agony escaped Carrow, as her femur was forcibly broken into two.

"_Percutio!" _whispered Harry, following the Bone-Breaker with a Piercing Curse, aimed at her other leg. He followed the verbal curse with another silent Piercer.

Alecto tittered on her feet before her leg gave out and slammed into the floor with her knees.

Harry watched in shock as the Piercing Curse he'd aimed for her leg hit her chest, just over her heart and rocked her body. Her mouth opened in a small _'O'_, just as another Piercer slammed into her.

A jet of blood blew out of her punctured chest, as she toppled over. The fountain of blood kept on flowing and lent a red hue to the world. The sterile floor, the hospital beds, the very air itself turned a shade of crimson.

Harry had never seen so much blood in his life and could only watch in morbid fascination as a pool of dark red blood formed around Carrow's body.

A violent shake of his head pulled Harry from the hypnotic vision; he still had to get out of Hogwarts. He pulled off his battered glasses and tapped it with his wand and muttered, _"Reparo!"_ There was a small flash of light as the broken spectacle rearranged itself and the shattered glass reformed to become brand new.

He put on his repaired glasses and crawled over to where the old broomstick had fallen and summoned the Invisibility Cloak and the satchel filled with potion vials to him. Harry quickly checked to see if the phials had broken during the duel. He needn't have worried as he found the vials to be enchanted with an Unbreakable Charm making them impervious to normal impacts.

He fished out an Invigoration Draught and a Wit-sharpening Potion, and gulped them down in quick succession. His entire head was throbbing from the effects of the torture curse and he'd trouble concentrating. The Wit-Sharpening Potion should lend him the mental dexterity needed, long enough to leave Hogwarts. He disregarded any complications that might arise from the successive ingestion of the two potions.

Harry wrapped the potion-satchel around his waist and hopped onto the _Shooting Star,_ and used his one good foot to kick off the ground.

He made one short circle in the air before heading straight towards one of the windows, his body flat on the broomstick. Moments before he made contact, Harry pulled out his wand and screamed, _"Deprimo!"_

The window shattered into a thousand pieces and Harry flew out into the morning air.

He rose steadily towards the sky while flying straight for the lining of trees on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

The sun had risen high in the sky and Harry flew under the bright sunlight completely visible from the castle.

Despite the circumstances and the many attempts on his life in the past few hours, Harry found himself enjoying the flying. As he closed in towards the Forbidden Forest, Harry felt that he'd successfully achieved what he had come to Hogwarts for.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Well, as I said, the update was supposed to come in February and it did, even if by only a hair's margin. Hopefully, the next one would be soon.

As you may've noticed, the story tile was changed to _A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes_ from _Hallows Vs Horcruxes_. The story's summary was also re-written. Reason was that I felt the previous ones didn't quite do justice to the story. The plot, however, remains same.

**Acknowledgements:** Thanks to the DLP crowd for their comments.

**Review:** I'll reply to each and every review that I receive.

**Twitter:** You may choose to follow me on Twitter. I post info about new stories and upcoming updates there. On that note, I've a new Harry/Tracey one-shot, all written that I'll post within a few weeks. So, look forward to that.


	4. The Hogwarts Marathon

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes

* * *

**

**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**The Hogwarts Marathon**

Harry flew swiftly towards the Forbidden Forest. The old and battered Shooting Star was hardly a match for his previous powerful Firebolt but it sufficed at the moment. Every so often he would glance back to see if he'd any pursuers, both in the sky and on the ground. So far he had been left alone.

Harry was quite sure that the ruckus caused by the duel between him and Carrow in the Hogwarts Infirmary hadn't gone unnoticed. Even if the inhabitants of Hogwarts had missed the explosions of the duel, they were sure to have heard Carrow's announcement of his presence. He just hoped that the Death Eaters were slow on the uptake and hopefully, he'd have already left Hogwarts by the time they could get their act together.

No sooner had he thought that when a ripple of power passed over him. Harry frantically looked over his shoulder to locate his attacker but came up with nothing.

_Have a bad feeling about this._

He lowered his head and hunched his shoulders to cut the air resistance and urged the old broomstick to go faster.

Yet, something was different, the air felt heavier, more viscous and thicker than before. And suddenly without any warning his broom started vibrating. Harry grasped the handle tightly and fought to bring the broomstick under control, but to no avail. On the contrary, the broom started shaking even more with erratic jerks.

Harry could do nothing but hold on to the broomstick for dear life as it started flinging around madly. And then as soon as it had started it came to a rest. He sighed in relief, believing that he'd managed to best whatever jinx that was affecting the broomstick.

His relief vanished promptly as soon as he realised that not only had the jinx stopped affecting the Shooting Star, the broomstick too had stooped working. It was only the momentum that was dragging it through the air.

His heart stopped and his eyes widened in pure fright as the Shooting Star nosed down towards earth. He was more than a hundred feet above the ground and couldn't possibly survive that kind of fall.

Desperation filled him as he rapidly evaluated his options. Memories passed through his mind as fast as he was falling. He thought of Apparition, but that wasn't possible within the castle wards, portkey perhaps, but he disregarded that too; he didn't know how to create one. He thought of Dumbledore stopping his fall once during his earlier years at Hogwarts in a Quidditch match, but once again he came up empty. He didn't how to cast that spell. All the time the ground was rushing up to meet him.

And just as a collision seemed inevitable, Harry acted on pure instinct. He discarded the broomstick, falling freely to the ground. A few seconds before he would be lying flat against the earth, he whipped out his wand and cast the most powerful Cushioning Charm he'd ever cast, on the ground.

Harry hit the earth face first. The force of collision and the effect of the Cushioning Charm bounced him back into the air. There was a large _thump_ as Harry hit the ground the second time around.

He didn't know how long he lay on the ground; it might have been a few minutes or a few hours.

Harry pushed against the ground, gritting his teeth against the pain that it caused and heaved himself around.

There was a deep ringing in his ears and the ground seemed to shake every few moments and the air was filled with dust particles.

His entire body was numb, and unless Harry moved, in which case a world of pain would assault his senses, he couldn't feel a damn thing. He knew the pain would come but for the moment he was glad of the small respite.

The ground shook once again as if a small quake had disturbed it. Harry heaved his head up to look for the cause. The world swam in front of him and he'd to close his eyes and shook his head slightly to clear the cobwebs.

Harry opened his eyes just in time to see a blur of something impact against the ground a few feet away from his body. A violent tremor shook the earth and the air was filled with yellowish dust. He coughed as he breathed in the particles. When the air cleared, he found a large crater, a foot deep and nearly three feet wide had formed in the earth.

Harry squinted his eyes against the glare of the sun on his face and searched for the perpetrators. His eyes soon sought them out. Three Death Eaters were running towards him from the entrance of Great Hall of Hogwarts. Two of them had gained quite a distance on him, while the third was lagging behind.

Harry watched in strange fascination as the third man stopped and pulled back his wand arm and then suddenly swiped it high towards the sky. There was a small flash as a bolt of magic leapt from his wand and went soaring through the air. Harry curiously traced its progression, as it raced towards the skies. At the height of its ascension, there was another flash and then it started rapidly descending towards him. His eyes widened in realisation and he frantically scrambled back to avoid the spell.

He needn't have worried though as the spell hit the ground, rocking it and missed him by quite a margin.

Without wasting another moment, Harry turned around and started crawling towards the Forbidden Forest. He noticed that he'd actually crashed quite near the very edges of the trees of the forest, just a few yards off the banks of the Black Lake.

He pulled himself up to his feet and started limping towards the lining of the forest, dragging his broken leg behind him.

Another one of the strange spells flew over his head and impacted against Dumbledore's tomb that was located only a few meters left of Harry, near the lake. The curse completely decimated the marble encased tomb and flung Dlumbledore's body out in the open. Harry glanced back over his shoulders and glared furiously at the Death Eaters at the sacrilege, yet there was nothing that he could do at the moment to avenge the desecration.

Harry gritted his teeth angrily and even more forcefully started hobbling towards the forest. He stepped over something slippery and almost lost his balance. Looking down, he saw a small cylindrical piece of twig on which he'd stepped over. Only when did he pick it up, did Harry realise that the slender knotted piece of wood was Dumbledore's wand. He had seen him wield it many a times in the past, seen him do extraordinary and powerful magic with it.

Harry hesitated for a few moments before stuffing it in his pocket. It was better that he took it than leave it behind to become some glorious trophy of a murdering Death Eater.

A curse flew over his head and ruffled his hair with the force of its speed, missing his head by a few inches and passed into the canopy of trees ahead. A glance over his shoulder told Harry that the two Death Eaters had very nearly caught up with him. He didn't waste any further time and started dragging himself towards the shade of the trees of the forest, all the time ducking under any curses that came his way.

The canopy of the large trees provided a shade from the bright sun's rays.

Harry kept on moving as fast as he could, which wasn't really all that fast. He knew that the Death Eaters were catching up on him.

Twigs snapped beneath his feet and leaves crunched as Harry ran pell-mell through the forest, hobbling his injured leg.

He bent his torso to duck under a particularly low branch, when it was blown to smithereens by one of the Death Eater's spells. Harry glanced back and saw to his horror that two of the Death Eaters had almost caught up with him. With a sudden burst speed, he ran deeper into the jungle – every step felt as if his injured right leg was being stabbed upon by hot, jagged knifes – zigzagging through the trees to avoid their curses. Trees and shrubs kept up blowing by his side as Harry kept on running despite the intense burning pain it was causing his battered and grievously wounded body.

He hadn't gotten far enough though, when Harry felt a tickle of something hit him in the thighs; the very next moment his ankles snapped together as if someone had forcefully grabbed them in an iron grip. His eyes widened in horror, as he recognised the effects of a Trip Jinx, even as his momentum sent him flying through the air. Harry crashed into the ground with his right shoulder, skidding through the dirt some distance before he came to a halt.

He immediately twisted his body around, to see the two Death Eaters stop a few feet away from him. Harry recognised Yaxley, current Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The other he knew from the night of Dumbledore's murder, Amycus Carrow, Alecto's brother, the woman he'd killed in the Infirmary earlier.

Acting instinctively, Harry lifted his wand and sent a translucent jet of light towards Yaxley, who simply tilted his head and the spell hit one of the overhanging branches of the numerous trees.

A flash of bright red light momentarily lit the area and Harry found himself devoid of his wand.

"You're going to pay for you what you did at the Ministry, Potter," Yaxley snarled at Harry, as he pointed his wand towards him, his blunt features twisted in visible rage.

"You can't kill him." Interfered Amycus, and grabbed Yaxley's wand arm. "Remember, he belongs to the Dark Lord."

A violent shove by Yaxley pushed Amycus away as the former snatched away his arm from his companion's grasp and snapped, "I don't intend to kill him. The Dark Lord will have him alive, but first ..." He whirled around to face Harry, lying prone on the ground.

He snarled at Harry and spitted, "You'll beg for death before I'm done with you, Potter. You shouldn't have dared to cross me."

Pointing his wand at Harry's legs, Yaxley roared,_ "Secerus Vix!"_

However, at the very moment the spell was about to fly out from the tip of his wand, Yaxley's hand jerked involuntarily to his left and the curse caught an unsuspecting Amycus, who screamed in pure agony as his torso was ripped open by the curse.

Yaxley could only look on in horror as his fellow Death Eater gave a bloodied shriek and toppled over.

Only then did the Head of DMLE realise that a thick tendril of leaves from a nearby tree had coiled around his forearm and had pulled his wand arm towards the direction of his companion. The spell that Harry had thrown at the Death Eater wasn't meant to hit the man instead it was to animate the tree behind him. He wasn't exceptionally talented in Transfiguration but had learned enough under Slughorn to go by, enough to even out the odds when they weren't stacked in his favour.

Instead of attempting to pull his arm free, Yaxley tried to pluck out his wand with his other free hand. He didn't get far before another tendril coiled around his other arm and stretched it to the opposite side.

Harry found Yaxley engaged at the moment to freeing himself from the tendrils of the tree that he'd enchanted in an act of pure impulse and Amycus lying prone on the ground in a pool of his own blood, trying to contain his expelled entrails from his neatly bisected belly. Harry looked around and searched for his disarmed wand and found it lying a few feet away from him inside a copse of vegetation. His nails dug into the ground as he crawled towards his fallen wand, not trusting his broken physique to be able to stand up.

Harry plucked his wand out of the shrubs, pulling a few shards of the grass between his fingers and immediately whirled around to point his wand at the two men.

His eyes widened in surprise as he found Amycus trying to target the animated tree limbs that were holding Yaxley captive with his wand. Harry didn't waste a moment and immediately bellowed, _"Falx!"_

A huge silvery arc of magic raced towards Carrow, cleaving the earth between Harry and the Death Eater.

Amycus didn't even get to react as the Scythe Curse hit his shoulder and kept on moving towards his neck, cleaving straight through sinew and bone, until it dissipated as it reached his jugular.

A weak gurgle sounded from Amycus' mouth as blood gushed out from between his lips. His body gave a few horrific jerks and then became unnaturally still. Harry knew at that moment that Amycus was dead.

He turned his head towards Yaxley to avoid seeing the dead body of the Death Eater that he'd killed, only to see that another, thicker tendril of a tree had snaked around Yaxley's neck and was slowly constricting his throat. Harry watched in undisguised horror, as the tendril started slowly squeezing Yaxley's throat. The captive's body jerked upwards and his feet left the stability of the earth as the tree limb coiled round his neck pulling him up in the air.

Yaxley tried frantically to free himself, but only met with failure. His body hung freely in the air held by the neck, spread-eagled with two arms pulled tight to either side of his body.

Harry could only witness, horrified, as Yaxley met his fate. The Death Eater's eyes widened comically and he started kicking his legs violently to find a hold, but it was fruitless, on the contrary, in response he was pulled another foot high in the air, as the tendril coiled itself tighter. His cheeks turned a hue of blue and pure fright was evident in his bulging eyes. His tongue lolled out as his neck lengthened, his legs kicking even more erratically. There was a sharp crack and Yaxley's neck broke. Harry knew beyond any doubt that the Death Eater was dead.

_Now, I've killed two more._

Harry shook himself before any thoughts of self-deprecation could assault him; there was another Death Eater on his trail. He dug his hands into the satchel of potions tied around his waist and fished out another Invigoration Draught and quickly emptied its content into his stomach.

Harry stood up, tittering on his feet. Despite the effects of the potion he was still in too much pain and his body felt too sluggish. He however, couldn't afford the leisure of rest.

Harry whipped out the Invisibility Cloak from his pocket and wrapped it around himself, hoping that the last Death Eater would lose track of him in the thick shrubs and vegetations.

He walked even further into the forest, his breath laborious and pain racking his entire body every few seconds.

**O**

Harry soon came upon a small clearing, and bent over breathing heavily, unable to exert his body any further. There was a stitch in his chest. And his left arm felt as if it was on fire, the wound that Alecto had delivered was throbbing painfully. His broken and mangled leg sent sharp lances of extraneous pain to his cranium every few seconds.

Harry tried Apparating only to find himself still within the Anti-Apparition wards of Hogwarts.

Suddenly, without any warning a spike of force struck his unprotected back and flung him tumultuously through the air. His flying body struck the trunk of a giant tree and fell down to the ground, unmoving.

Through the sharp haze of pain Harry raised his eyes, to see an indistinct shape of a man step out of the shade of the trees.

The other Death Eater had caught up with him. Harry didn't know how the man had found out his position despite the Invisibility Cloak.

As if reading his thoughts, the Death Eater answered, "Your blood, Potter, it leaves a trail through the undergrowth."

Harry turned his head at his words and looked at the deep cut on his arm. Indeed, the bandage wrapped around his biceps had turned a deep brown, as blood seeped out and dribbled down his arm.

The Death Eater took a few steps closer to Harry and looked at him with unadulterated rage. He pointed his wand and Harry saw the tip of it glow a bright crimson moments before the man whispered, _"Crucio!"_

Harry's world was rent apart by blinding pain, he felt as if his blood was being boiled and hot, scalding knives were raking his body. Every nerve end of his body was on fire. His eye-balls felt as if they were being compressed and his bones were being twisted around and broken into pieces, sharp spikes would pierce his lungs and he couldn't breathe in.

The sharp haze of pain stopped as soon as the curse stopped affecting him, leaving a tremendous pounding of dull ache in his entire body and rendering him very nearly catatonic. He opened his eyes, which felt like they were burning and looked at the Death Eater.

The heavy set man had his side to Harry and looked alert, as if searching for some danger. It was only then he noticed that the earth was shaking periodically.

Harry heard a mighty roar and something broke out of the lining of trees creating a large disturbance of the fauna.

"Hagger!" something yelled, and Harry's mind immediately conjured up images of Hagrid's half-brother, Grawp.

"You not Hagger!" Harry twisted around his body with difficulty, to indeed find himself looking at Hagrid's half-brother, Grawp. The giant squinted at his prone form and seemed to recognise him. "Harry! ... You hurt Harry!" thundered the giant, looking at the Death Eater, as Grawp noticed Harry's broken form.

Harry had never seen a giant look angry, really angry. There was something terribly inhuman about it. With a murderous look in Grawp's eyes, he charged towards the Death Eater, a mighty echoing yell resounding through the small forest clearing.

The Death Eater for his part reacted non-chalantly, he took a step back and pulled his wand arm behind him. Harry saw the man whipping his wand rapidly over the clawed palm of his other hand.

The earth shook violently as the giant ran towards the man. Grawp lifted a meaty paw to swat the Death Eater, when the man flung out both of his hands at the charging the giant. Harry saw a misty ball of magic that went swirling towards Grawp and hit him with a dull _thud _against his torso. The ball of magic splashed against Grawp's' chest and bodily lifted the fifteen feet tall giant and send him flying backwards.

Harry looked on incredulously at the unbelievable feat of magic; to throw a pure-blooded giant flying back with a single spell was astounding.

The ground gave a mighty shake as the heavy giant crash landed into the earth. Grawp however, didn't seem to go down so easily and was immediately back on his feet, looking at the Death Eater with an animalistic savageness in his eyes. He gave a mighty roar and grabbed a nearby tree with both of his hands. With a forceful heave, he plucked it out from the earth wielding it in the form a crude club and swiped at the Death Eater with his gigantic weapon.

The man leapt back to avoid catching the up-rooted tree with his body, and sent a dark looking curse flying towards the giant.

Harry's nose caught a whiff of a disgusting smell like the kind present in sewers as the curse traversed towards Grawp. The curse hit the tree the giant was wielding and it started rotting at an extremely accelerated pace. Within moments, the tree became a husk of melted and rotten timber.

Grawp looked at the rotten tree angrily, not understanding what had happened to it. He discarded it to aside and ran towards the Death Eater again. The man deliberately and slowly, as if he was meeting a lot of resistance dragged his wand through the air diagonally.

A wide and deep looking gash opened up on Grawp's thighs in response, and he let out a roar of pain, as he crashed into the ground with his knees, unable to keep running.

Harry in the meantime was trying to wield his wand that was still grasped within his fingers. His body however seemed unresponsive to his mental commands. The Cruciatus had very nearly robbed him of his motor ability. With a loud groan he tried to lift his hand, beads of sweat lined his brow and he managed to raise a badly shaking arm a few inches and murmured out, _"Exarmo!"_

The Death Eater unsuspicious of Harry's activities lent a cry of pain as his fingers broke under the effects of the spell and his wand was forcibly disarmed from him. Harry dropped the man with a Stunner before his arm fell down uselessly by his side. He closed his eyes and let his head hit the ground as he heaved in giant gulps of air and allowed himself a small reprieve.

Minutes passed as Harry lay horizontal on the ground before he was able to get a bearing of his body. With excruciating slowness, Harry got to his feet, his limbs shaking terribly and every jostle would send a ripple of pain through his body.

Harry summoned his Invisibility Cloak and the Death Eater's wand to him and checked the satchel around his waist before he limped off towards where Grawp was lying on the ground.

Grawp's thigh was bleeding profusely; a large puddle of blood had formed around Grawp's leg. The curse was very deep and had torn into the very muscles of the giant. Harry had no idea what kind of curse could penetrate so deep through a giant's spell resistant skin. He attempted an _episkey_, but found it unable to close the gaping wound. With no other option in sight, Harry wrapped the cut with conjured bandages to hinder the blood flow. Fishing out a Blood Replenishing Potion from his satchel, Harry emptied the solution into the giant's mouth. There wasn't anything else he could do.

He moved to the Death Eater's body and looked down at him. The man had a strong jaw-line and looked as if he had suddenly lost a great deal of weight in the past and had only recently begun to recover. A faint memory flashed in his mind.

Three men and a woman convicted of torturing an Auror couple. He had even seen the trial in Dumbledore's pensieve. Harry recognised the man: Rudolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix Lestrange's husband.

Harry wondered what the man was doing here in Hogwarts. He had never seen him on the Marauder's Map during his two week long vigil. For that matter, Harry hadn't even seen Yaxley on the Map. Regardless, Harry lifted his wand at the man, to finish him off. He didn't get to shoot a spell before he had heard some crunching of twigs behind him.

Harry immediately whirled around – ignoring a spasm of extreme pain that passed through his body, at the sudden motion – his wand at the ready with his heart beating rapidly fearing another attack. He only found a skeletal looking horse step out of the trees, a thestral. Harry heaved a sigh of relief and lowered down his wand as the thestral moved towards him.

Of course, Harry realised he was dripping blood and so was Grawp and thestral's get attracted by blood.

Harry turned back to the fallen Death Eater, but a new idea was beginning to form in his head. He looked at the thestral and his plan solidified. He hit Lestrange with a _Petrificus Totalus _before tying him up with an _i__ncarcerous._

_"Mobilicorpus!" _Cast Harry and the Death Eater was lifted a few feet off the ground. Harry limped towards the thestral and patted it gently on the back, the Death Eater's body following behind him. Harry swung his leg over the thestral and got up on the beast and magically hefted Lestrange across it.

He whispered the destination in the beast's ear and the thestral took a few steps back before cantering towards the tree lining. It looked as if the thestral was going to crash against the trees, before it spread open its wings and with two mighty flaps, the thestral was airborne with Harry on its back and the Death Eater ridding pillion.

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**Author's Note:** All right, here you go, the next update. Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain this update speed.

For those who haven't read it yet, check out my M-rated one-shot: _Tequila_. I have another one-shot in the draft stage, tentatively titled _A Fool's Gold, _a Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy story that should come out in a month or so.

**Edit:** I'd mistakenly typed Avery instead of Yaxley in this chapter. I have corrected it. It was Yaxley, Head of DMLE and Amycus Carrow, who were pursuing Harry in the Forest. And later, Rudolphus Lestrange. I hope it clears up any confusion. If not, you can PM me with any questions.

**Acknowledgement:** Thanks to the DLP crowd for their comments.


	5. Hook, Line And Sinker

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes**

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**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

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**Chapter 5****  
Hook, Line And Sinker**

The morning Sun's rays filtered through the closed shades of the window and fell on the closed eyes of one, Harry Potter. Harry tossed around in the bed and put up his arm to cover his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Unable to return to the dreamy unconsciousness of slumber, he decided that he might just as well get up. He sat up on the bed and pulled aside the covers, twisting his body to work out the kinks, careful enough not to over stretch himself.

He picked up his glasses from his bedside table and pulled out his wand from underneath the pillow. A flick towards the direction of the cupboard with his wand and a set of clothes flew out from it.

Harry got off the bed and slowly walked out of the smallest bedroom of the house at No.4 Privet Drive, a pair of denim jeans and tee shirt following him, soaring through the air. He walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. Another flick of his wand and luke-warm water flew from the tip of his wand, filling up the bathtub. As the tub filled up with water, he attended to his morning ablutions - brushing his teeth, emptying his bladder.

Harry grabbed a small container off the storage cupboard and emptied its fruity smelling contents in the tub brimming with hot water. He used his wand to mix the solution and the water, before stripping off completely and stepping into the tub. He slid down until only his nose remained above the water level.

The solution he had mixed with water was something that he had brewed himself. He had found the directions for the salve in the _Half-Blood Prince's_ book. Harry found it easier to think of him that way, then as Snape, the murderer of Dumbledore. He'd liberated the book when he had left Hogwarts at the end of his sixth year, debating that he might as well use every resource available to him. And it was lucky that he had, for ever since he'd started using the slave, he found that his aches had started bothering him a lot less and his wounds were healing at an acclerated pace. And there had been a lot of wounds on his body after the debacle at Hogwarts.

Harry stretched his right leg out of the foamy water and looked at it with interest. His leg looked unnaturally thin, with the claves shaped in a grotesque manner and the musculature looking twisted. Harry's attempts at healing had not been completely successful, far from it. While he had managed to remove the broken bone; the action of the Skele-Gro had not gone perfectly. He had been able to re-grow his bone back; it however wasn't as it had been before. And he was now forced to walk with a permanent limp and certain positions would send sharp jabs of pain through his leg.

He dipped his leg back into the water and let the salve work on it. His leg had not been the sole injury that he had garnered while infiltrating Hogwarts. His entire body had been black and blue and the effect of the Cruciatus, no matter how short in duration, was long lasting, especially in the absence of medical help. The salve was however, helping his body cope with the dull ache that had become a permanent presence.

Harry got out of the tub, after spending nearly half an hour in it, water dripping from his naked body onto the tiles. He grasped his wand from toilet seat and lightly tapped his head with it. A gentle cocoon of warm air wrapped around Harry, evaporating the water from his body. He felt himself completely dry as the wind dispelled.

Standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, he found himself staring into a gaunt and thin looking teenager. His pupils were blood-shot and there were dark bags under his eyes. His body was marred with criss-crossing wounds, some half-open and still oozing, while others had started to scab and there were innumerable bruises that were scattered across his body. A dark blue throbbing shiner on his forehead when he'd impacted head first along the wall during his duel with Alecto to long thick strips of red discoloration across his chest from his fight with Nagini, where the snake had tried to squeeze him to death. He sighed, at least he looked better than the first time he'd seen his reflection in the mirror, when had come to No. 4 a week previously. The salve was indeed doing wonders for his body.

Harry looked at the biceps of his left arm; it was wrapped in ragged bandages that had turned a dark brown. _"Diffindo!" _cast Harry carefully, making sure not to cut up his arm. The bandages fell open and Harry promptly Vanished them.

A noxious and revolting smell of rotten flesh filled up the bathroom coming from the wound on his biceps. The crinkled skin had turned black and looked as if it had died and there were parts where the skin was peeling off displaying reddish brown flesh. There was a deep gush in the middle of the huge black area.

Alecto's curse had done a number on him. No matter what he tried, the wound refused to heal. He had not even managed to seal it. The _Cutter_ had very nearly ended up slicing his bone. Unable to repair the damage, Harry was forced to change bandages every day, since they turned torn and ragged after a single day of use. Harry was sure that the curse was poisonous, since, his flesh seemed to be dying bit by bit. It wasn't anything like Professor Dumbledore's wound, but it was similar.

Harry pulled out a Wound Cleansing Potion from the storage cupboard and gingerly applied it on the wound. Purple smoke flew from the injury at the application of salve as Harry gritted his teeth as he felt his flesh burn. The burning sensation passed leaving the skin fresh and clean.

He twirled his wand and Conjured himself a roll of bandages. He unwrapped the roll and fetched himself a bottle of Essence of Murtlap from the cupboard and dipped the fresh bandage in the Murtlap, allowing it to soak up the potion. With practiced movements, Harry tied the wet bandage around his wound, before covering the wrapping with another roll of dry bandages.

He picked up the vials of potion that he had used and put them back into the storage cupboard before dressing himself. His morning ritual done, he left the bathroom.

Harry descended the flight of stairs into the living room and turned towards the kitchen to cook breakfast. He cast a wary eye on the cupboard beneath the stairs as he passed it by and started at it for a few moments. Finding the door locked and secure, Harry went on his way to the kitchen.

Delicious smells of frying bacon filled his nostrils. Harry had sat himself on a Conjured stool and was directing the frying pans, which cooked the bacon and a piece of omelette, while oranges were being squeezed into fresh juice with his wand. As he concentrated to maintain control over the flying pots and pans, Harry realized that he had learned something from his week long stay at Privet Drive.

When he had first attempted to try his hand at cooking with his wand, his results had only been charred mess that had no resemblance to what they should have been like. He would have simply avoided the entire trouble and cooked muggle way, if not for Slughorn's advice during the past year to try and do everything possible magically and that meant dressing up magically, making his bed and even cooking his food. Apparently, it was supposed to teach him precision. Harry had no idea whether he had improved his skills with these techniques, but he felt that once mastered, doing something with magic felt so much easier than doing it the mundane way.

As a plate flew towards him with hot bacon and omelette with a glass filled with orange juice, Harry realised that he had also managed to learn how to cook with his wand.

He dug into his food with gusto, all the while contemplating how to proceed further from his current quandary. When he had left Hogwarts grievously wounded a week ago on top of a Thestral, he had gone straight to his hide-out cave in Hogsmeade. He had not wasted a moment, packing his things, fearing Death Eaters would be on his trail very soon. It was only as he was about to leave that he faced the dilemma of choosing his next hide-out. In the panic of the moment he had simply Apparated to Privet Drive, which in retrospect was quite a brilliant idea.

Death Eaters were unlikely to search through a place they had already rather thoroughly ransacked once. And No. 4 was indeed in quite a deplorable condition when he had arrived. The Dursley's large TV had been broken to pieces, not that Harry minded it one bit, cause the Dursley's had never allowed him to watch. The sofas were ripped to shreds; the entire house was topsy turvy. Ironically, the only two places that had seemed to escape with the least damages were his smallest bedroom and the cupboard beneath the stairs.

His breakfast competed; he dispatched the dishes to the sink with a tiny flick of his wand, where they began to wash themselves.

He picked up another plate of a dry piece of sandwich and filled up a glass with water from the sink for his guest. As he stood outside the cupboard beneath the stairs, the plate and the glass hovering in front of him, leaving his wand free to attack or defend, Harry took a deep breath to steady himself before mentally going through the plan.

He moved his wand deliberately through long strokes and undid some of the numerous charms and curses and wards that he had placed. As the door opened with a tiny click, Harry stole a glance inside. The darkness did not allow him to discern much, but he was sure form the heavy breathing that his captive was awake.

With renewed determination, Harry stepped into the darkness of the small cupboard and immediately felt the heaviness of the thick wards, which he had place to ensure his captive's imprisonment and were still active.

Harry found Rudolphus Lestrange looking at him through unblinking eyes, sheer rage evident in them. As he sent the food flying towards Lestrange, the veteran Death Eater leapt out of the bed, jumping towards Harry with a primal scream of fury. His bared teeth would not have looked out of place on a hyena's mouth as he snapped them towards his captor as if trying to bite off his flesh. Lestrange's body stopped abruptly a few feet short of Harry, as heavy iron chains wrapped around his neck and limbs forced him back to his prone form on the bed.

Harry had not given ground at Rudolphus' – if truth be told – rather scary display. However, his heart was beating so forcefully in his chest that he was surprised that he couldn't hear it out loud and from Rudolphus' blood-thirsty grin, the man knew the fear he'd caused. Harry sneered at the Death Eater angrily, having been caught off-foot before he could even begin his plans of negotiation and snarled, "Your breakfast, Lestrange. Much better than the gruel they feed you at Azkaban, I'm sure. So, eat up."

The man looked at him, with opaque eyes, inner emotions indiscernible, before using his flabby fingers to pick up the sandwich. Harry snickered a bit as he saw the man try to eat with boneless fingers. The man gave him an angry glare in return before gobbling up his food.

Harry had never attempted to Vanish bones before and as such was cautious against the results of a mangled first attempt. Unwilling to use his broken leg as the first target, Harry turned towards Lestrange for experimentation. And it had been quite fortunate that he did, since, his first attempt had showed less than desirable result and consequently, Lestrange's right hand fingers bore the injury. And as a result the man could no longer even twitch his fingers of his right hand without causing himself terrible pain. Apparently, the bones had only half-vanished leaving the reaming bits intact. It was only by the time Harry had progressed to Lestrange's left hand that he had been satisfied enough with the results that he had felt comfortable enough to cast the spell on his own leg.

"Much better than what you have feeding me the past few days, Potter," Rudolphus said out loud, breaking Harry from his thoughts. "Progress like this and you'll soon become talented enough to be a house-elf."

"A house-elf who has managed to imprison the big-bad Rudolphus Lestrange. Makes me wonder whether all the hype about you was just because of dear old Bellatrix," retorted Harry, spitting out Bellatrix's name.

Rudolphus in turn bared his teeth and blew out his nostrils angrily but didn't make another comment. Harry had learned from making small talk with the Death Eater that Lestrange took any slight against his capability very seriously.

"But then again I remember your curses in Hogwarts ... quite powerful. Especially those high flying blasting spells you were throwing around at the start. You mustn't be without your shred of talent then," said Harry with careful doses of flattery, he needed something from the man and it was best he kept him in a good enough mood, till he acquiesced. "What was it, anyways?" Harry queried.

"_Addendums_, Potter. Real magic cast by real wizards, beyond your abilities." The man sneered at him, but seemed pleased at his talents being respected by the enemy.

Harry didn't bother to argue back. He had after all never heard of the term _addendums_ before. He would have to look into it.

"How would you like to be set free, Rudolphus?" asked Harry cautiously.

"What do you want Potter? Speak plainly. Subtly doesn't suit a simpleton like you." Rudolphus snarled at Harry.

_Damn, caught at the first attempt. Perhaps I should just ask what I want._

Throwing caution to the wind, Harry said, "You have a vault in Gringotts, don't you, Lestrange?"

"Yes, of course. An old and respected family like the Lestrange's obviously would have a vault at Gringotts. What do you want with it? Need gold." He laughed. "Potter, the Dark Lord is hunting for you, d'you really expect that you can go to a shop and splurge on toys."

"I don't need your gold, Lestrange. You have a rather curious item in your vault. A goblet, to be more precise." Lestrange's eye widened at the breadth of knowledge that Harry was displaying.

"What do you want with the Hufflepuff's cup, Potter? It's useless to you. It's a showpiece, fool. All the rumours of hidden powers are just that, rumours, nothing more."

Harry was surprised that that the man knew about the cup's origin, but did not comment on it. Lestranges after all did come from an old line of Purebloods; it was possible that he knew about the precious Founder's object, especially, since he was given the task of guarding it.

"Of course, it's useless. But I want it anyways. You master wants his trophy to remain safe," scoffed Harry, making it sound like it was a case of petty vengeance, "and that's enough reason for me to want it," said Harry, deliberately undermining the importance of the cup.

Lestrange leaned back on the narrow cot. Harry allowed the man the time to make his decision, not trying to force, no matter how vital it was that Harry ensured his cooperation. It was best if Harry did not let his captive know of the extent of importance of the task.

"What if I refuse?" Lestrange spoke out softly.

"I'm sure you remember the bodies of Amycus and Yaxley," Harry replied immediately. And perhaps a bit too quickly. It was a question, Harry already had prepared the answer for. He knew Lestrange was going to ask it.

Lestrange kept his eyes shut, appeared to be thinking on the matter.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked at Harry with a mocking smile on his face. "You killed Amycus and Yaxley in the heat of the battle, Potter. Can you really kill someone in cold blood? A premeditated act of murder, Potter. Can you do it?"

Harry blinked, and Lestrange cottoned on to his weakness. The Death Eater gave a harsh laugh and said, "Can you do it? Be a murderer. Think about Dumbledore. What would the old man say? What would your parents think?" Lestrange asked mockingly.

And with that Rudolphus had pressed his finger on the sore nerve. Harry had debated long and hard with himself during the lonely hours in the past week. He had killed people, killed them brutally. And Dumbledore had been right all along, killing someone was not quite as easy as the innocent seemed to believe. No matter the fact that those he'd killed were already murderers, no matter that if he hadn't killed them, then they would have killed him. The fact remained that he had killed someone. He'd argued long and hard with his own conscience that he had only acted in self defence and that had he not done so, they would have surely killed him. It was only in the last day or two that he had accepted his actions and the necessity of the circumstances. He understood the need of doing what he had done. He did not enjoy killing someone, but he refused to beat himself over it.

However, killing someone in the heat of the battle was different from murdering a man who was for all purposes at his mercy. That would be a murder, and Harry refused to go down that path and Lestrange had caught his bluff.

Harry gritted his teeth, and snarled, "Maybe you are right, may be I can't kill you." Lestrange gave a croaking laugh at Harry's admission. "However, look at where you are, Lestrange. No one knows whether you're alive or dead. And I assure you that no one is looking for you either."

"I won't kill you Lestrange, if you don't help me." Harry gave a small smile, and continued, "But then again, I won't have to. I'll just leave you to your fate here, all alone and broken. Think for a moment what would happen to you without food and water."

Lestrange's eyes widened at that. Apparently, he had not thought of Harry just leaving him to die, alone and imprisoned without food and water. It was unlikely that he could go on for more than a month without sustenance.

"I'll leave you to dwell on the matter, shall I?" asked Harry. "And just that there are no interruptions in your deep thinking, I won't disturb you by bringing your evening meal." The threat was not lost on the Death Eater.

Harry gave his captive a large and fake smile and slowly walked out of the tiny cupboard, closing the door behind him and reapplying the protections on it.

Harry mentally thumped his shoulder on a job well done. He had been caught off guard with Lestrange, but had made a quick escape with some fast thinking. And Harry had to admit, the idea had its merit. If the Death Eater did indeed refused to cooperate, Harry would just leave Private Drive and try to search for another means to break into Gringotts, leaving Rudolphus Lestrange imprisoned. Since, while Harry was unwilling to kill the Death Eater, he had no compunctions to let the man meet his fate. After all, there was no way Harry was going to set him free, considering all the vile crimes that he had committed.

As Harry started walking towards his bedroom on the first floor, he could not help but feel that he had been extremely lucky. He had captured Rudolphus with the intention of interrogating him about the current state of the wizarding world and about Voldemort's activities. His original plan had yielded no result, the veteran Death Eater had all but shrugged off Harry's novice attempts at questioning, going so far as to mock Harry about his skills at torturing information from a prisoner. It had made Harry realise one thing that while he had the guts to do what needed to be done during a battle, he simply did not have the stomach to torture a captive, even if the captive was someone like Lestrange.

That had made Harry try something more innovative. Legilimency had given results what he had not been able to achieve conventionally. A Befuddlement Draught fed with his daily meal and hours of thorough attempts at finding information from the Death Eater's mind had allowed Harry to garner some semblance of knowledge about the current wizarding world.

He was still far from an expert in the mind arts, and the only reason of his success was the Death Eater's equally pathetic defence of his mind. Harry wondered if it was Azkaban that had torn whatever defences Lestrange once had. Regardless, Harry had gotten the information that he had sought. And he had received more than that.

The Death Eater apparently knew nothing about Nagini's presence in the Chamber Of Secrets, but that was to be expected. Harry had learned from Dumbledore that Voldemort never divulged his true plans to his Death Eaters. The reason of the presence of Yaxley and Lestrange at Hogwarts was simply to inform Snape about the going-on's of the Ministry. Since, Voldemort was out of the country, and Harry knew that from some little flashes that he had of the Dark Lord every once in a while, despite his own Occlumency and Lestrange had confirmed it, Snape was apparently left in charge. He did not command the Death Eaters, but he was the one to whom the rest reported the trivial matters. Harry personally wondered if it was Snape's reward for killing Dumbledore, and it only served to make him hate the man more.

While all this information gave him some idea of the state of the Ministry, they were of no real importance to him. However, in his search through the Death Eater's mind, Harry had uncovered a one short glimpse of the Hufflepuff's cup. A desperate search later, he found out that Voldemort had given his Horcrux to the Lestrange's to store it in their vault. It actually made sense; Gringotts was a place for the rich and the wealthy. The long lines of purebloods stored their heritage heirlooms and vast riches there. And as Dumbledore had demonstrated to Harry, Voldemort was attracted by the glamour and power of the wizarding world.

However, while Harry may have found about the location of the next Horcrux, he was far from acquiring it. Breaking into Gringotts was not the same thing as infiltrating Hogwarts. He had sincere doubts whether his Invisibility Cloak could get him into the vaunted security of the goblin bank. And that was why he needed Lestrange's help.

As Harry entered back into his small bedroom, he hoped that a few days with no sustenance would perhaps make Lestrange more agreeable to his demands.

**O**

It had been three days since Harry had threatened the Death Eater. And for three days, the man had gone without food and water. Sitting on the bed surrounded by various books, Harry thought it was time to find about the Death Eater's decision. He needed Rudolphus' help but if the man refused, Harry was not averse to letting the man die from starvation. He would just let destiny decide Lestrange's fate and leave Privet Drive and search for another way into Gringotts.

Harry absent-mindedly flicked his wrist and gave his wand a forward jab with a slight jerking motion. A pale blue bolt of magic flew out of his wand and impacted a wooden plate that he'd conjured earlier. Harry sighed as the Piercing curse drilled a hole on the thin strip of wood, but failed to do anything else. This _addendum_ thing was turning out more difficult then he had thought previously.

When Lestange had first mentioned it, Harry had to search through his entire collection of the Auror manuals before he found the topic in a book of advanced magical techniques. The book contained some very nice ideas on non-verbal casting, effective and fast use of transfiguration in duelling, tips on trick draws and simultaneous transfiguration and descriptions of various other handy tricks to employ during a duel. Harry had never bothered with the book before, spending most of his time increasing his spell repertoire. However, as he soon found out while searching for _addendums,_ the book was a treasure trove of information. Most of the things in the book, Harry had no idea about, and despite his best attempts to decipher and understand them in the last three days, they went over his head. He found _addendums_ at the very end of the text. It was a fascinating concept and it also happened to be insanely difficult.

_Addendums_ in plain words nothing more than additions that were made to a spell to give it some additional properties. It was not a spell or a curse; it was a technique to spell casting. The additions that were made to a spell could be different things. It could be a small incantation added at the end of the generic spell or perhaps a tiny addition of wand movement in the original spell. The benefits were also varied and depended on the type of additions made. They could give a spell more power, or increase its range, or make it easier to break through shields. It could be anything. The _addendums_ were in general generic, an addition made to a spell could be used with a different ones. Of course, some _addendums_ were custom made for a spell, but most were interchangeable.

Harry found the concept extremely interesting. And from the looks of the things, it had looked pretty simple too, it was only when he had tried to practice that he'd learned fast-hand exactly how difficult it was. He had been practicing for a day now, and had yet to see any results. An _incendiary addendum_ to a Piercing Curse was supposed to give the spell a fire component. Unfortunately, his spell was no different than a normal _Percutio_.

Harry made another try to cast the Piercing Curse and once again was disappointed to note the lack of tale-tell signs of reddish tinge to the normal pale blue spell.

He sighed, he was hardly going anywhere with this practice of _addendums_. He got up from his bed. It was time to talk with his captive. He hoped he would be more successful with the Death Eater than he was with his attempts in spell casting.

**O**

"So, Lestrange, what have you decided," Harry asked quietly, as he sat on the edge of the cot that the Death Eater occupied.

Lestrange looked up from the plate of food that he was ferociously gobbling. He wanted to reinforce the facet to the Death Eater that the man could go free, if only he acquiesced to his demands. And if he refused what his condition would be.

Lestange finished eating hurriedly – perhaps afraid that Harry would leave him without food again – before answering, "How do I know, you will let me go if I can get you the cup?"

Harry frowned. He'd been expecting that question and if truth be told he'd the answer prepared. He was rather afraid to go down that path though. After all you can never truly foresee the consequences when you invoke such magic. It was, however, as always with him the only route ahead.

"We'll make an Unbreakable Vow," said Harry softly.

Lestrange's opaque eyes widened in surprise. He probably wasn't expecting Harry to go so far. And Harry understood quite well the reason for Lestrange's shock. When he'd first heard about the Vow while eavesdropping on Snape and Malfoy, he hadn't quite understood the ramifications of making such a Vow. A trip to the Restricted Section courtesy of permission from Slughorn had enabled Harry to find out why Unbreakable Vows weren't in vogue. Harry couldn't quite understand at first why Voldemort didn't demand such Vows from all the Death Eaters. It was only after thorough research into the intricacies of Unbreakable Vow that Harry understood the reason.

While there were many reasons such Vows were rarely uttered, the most important reason that they were never invoked unless for dire circumstances was the fact that they were very ambiguous. You can never predict what the result of a particular Vow would be. The same conditions of the Vow could be different for different people.

A frank discussion with Slughorn allowed Harry to gain further insight. Apparently the intention of the people and their thoughts affected the Vow just as much the words that described the conditions. Voldemort could not simply ask his Death Eater to make a Vow of loyalty for the magic guarding the Vow might kill them even if they hadn't been disloyal. A thought of disloyalty, for instance if the Death Eater were to insult the Dark Lord or cast doubt upon his abilities the magic may take their life if Voldemort believed that such acts were not the sign of a loyal Death Eater.

With such ambiguous circumstances that protected the Vow, Harry was hardly surprised that they weren't used all that much. It also made him aware of the lengths Severus had gone to protect Malfoy. And he could understand very well why Lestrange would be surprised by his choice. But he needed something that would hold them both to their words and there was nothing better than the Unbreakable Vow.

"An Unbreakable Vow, Potter," said Lestrange. "I'm impressed. You do intend to hold your word then."

"Yes," said Harry tersely.

"The conditions then, Potter," demanded the Death Eater.

"You will not attempt to warn anyone about me in any way or form, directly or indirectly. You will get me inside the Lestrange's Vault and recover the Hufflepuff's Cup for me. In turn, after you've done so, I'll no longer hold you captive and will not harm you further," stated Harry. He'd gone through the conditions in his head a lot of times. They were solid, or as solid as they can be.

"And you'll return my wand," said Lestrange.

"I'll think about that condition," said Harry, anxious for Lestrange to accept the offer.

"No, Potter. If you want my assistance then you will return my wand. Or we've no deal, Potter."

"If you can get me the Hufflepuff's Cup, Lestrange, I'll return your wand."

Both of them stared at each other intensely, each willing the other to give ground.

Finally the Death Eater sighed and said, "Alright, Potter that is acceptable."

"Good. We'll make the Vow tomorrow."

Lestrange nodded and with that Harry left the cupboard, with the Death Eater still shackled to his iron manacles. He smiled as he closed the door of the cupboard and reapplied the protections.

_Yes, things were falling into place.

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_

**Author's Note:** Yeah, its been a really long time, since, I updated. But I've been really busy to find time to write fanfics. I'll finish the story though. I have not planned each chapter of the story just to give up half-way through. So, it may not finish by the end of this year, as I had originally planned. But finish it, I will.

Next update, will be for the _The Potter Politics_. Don't know when that will be.


	6. The Great Bank Robbery

**A Story of Hallows and Horcruxes**

* * *

**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoats Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.

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**Chapter 5  
The Great Bank Robbery**

Diagon Alley – it had been his first experience with magic, a magical vista hidden from the mundane world that he had once lived in. Looking at it then, Harry would've been hard placed to align his fond memories of yester-years with the destitute place it had become.

No more were the streets busy with boisterous shoppers and their families going about their way, purchasing their daily necessities. The laughter and the cries of the shop-keepers selling their wares has been replaced with palpable fear, as the people, few as they were, walked the streets, keeping their head down and their mouths closed. No more hollered greetings to any passerby's they might've known.

The streets were just the same, the shops similar although more than a few were barren. No, the most disturbing sight was the squalor. Beggars in filthy rags, begging for food by the sides of street even as regally garbed wizards and witches passed them by. No one paid them any mind, as if their presence was quite the norm.

Harry easily saw a distinction between two kinds of men in the alley. One fearful, quiet, with heads down and eyes frantic, as if fearing for their life for daring to go outside in such times. The other imperial, walking with an audacity as if they owned not just the streets but the men themselves.

His face hardened as he saw a man cruelly boot a woman, when she grabbed the lapels of his rich robes beseeching for the whereabouts of her daughter. Harry closed his eyes, when he saw the man spit at her, before flashing out his wand and whipping the woman away from his person.

Lestrange didn't seem to care about it, as if beggars were quite norm in Diagon Alley. He was walking through the streets majestically, back straight and head high. People gave way as he passed them by, some calling out to him respectfully even as others bowed down their heads and scampered out of his way, all to avoid attention by the fearsome Death Eater.

Harry, despite the anger bubbling in him, was relieved by the aura of fear that the Death Easter evoked. Hidden beneath his Invisibility Cloak, Harry followed the Death Eater through the streets of Diagon Alley. The wide passage of people that separated themselves at the Death Easter's path helped Harry remain invisible that mightn't have been possible if he'd to push his way through a throng of people.

They came to a halt in front of the majestic building of the Gringotts Bank.

"Here we are, Potter," Rudolphus muttered softly, as Harry moved to stand beside him. No one dared to remain close to the Death Eater, as such being eavesdropped was the least of Harry's concerns.

As they stood, the pair noticed two goblins standing by either side of the entrance carrying thick rods in their hand which they ran over anyone who sought to enter the Bank.

"Probity probes," said Rudolphus quietly, his eyes lighting up in recognition.

"Huh?" asked Harry, confused and worried. This was not part of the plan. Lestrange had never mentioned anything about any _probity probes_ the dozen times they'd gone over the act.

"They detect hidden enchantments," said Rudolphus, still waiting quietly at the foot of the marble stairs that led up to the bank.

"You hadn't mentioned them before," demanded Harry angrily.

"I didn't know, Potter," Lestrange said firmly but quietly, "It has been a while since I last ventured into Diagon Alley, and you know that I am speaking the truth given my continued existence."

Harry had to begrudgingly admit that perhaps the Death Eater truly didn't know about it. But that did create the problem as to how to enter Gringotts, for unlike Hogwarts there was no other secret passage that he was aware of.

He needed to devise a solution and fast, after all they couldn't stand there waiting, and wary looks were already being cast at Rudolphus for waiting nonsensically at the footsteps of the stairs to the Gringotts Bank. Someone was likely to chance upon them the longer they waited and that'd be the end of their mission and would probably be his end too.

Harry a took a deep breath and let it go, trying to calm his rapidly pulsating heart and get his mind to land upon a brilliant idea that'd help him circumvent a protection device that he didn't even know how it worked.

If there was one thing that Harry had learned in the past few days, it was that a complicated predicament was often solved by a simple solution. People he had seen often forgot the easiest of ways as they sought to block the more difficult ones.

"You go on ahead," Harry commanded the Death Eater, "and follow the plan. There will be no deviations."

Rudolphus gave a barely perceptible nod of his head before walking the stairs up to the Bank.

Meanwhile, Harry quietly shuffled into a narrow passage between two shops close to the bank.

It wasn't much of a passage so much that it was just a tiny aperture between the walls of the two shops that didn't want a common shared partition. As such, thin that Harry was, even he had difficulty entering the dark and dingy opening. No sooner had he moved inside, he looked back to see if anyone could see him, before quickly removing his Cloak off him. He shoved the Invisibility Cloak inside his robes with some difficulty in the tight fitted passageway and pulled down his hood to just below his nose and swiftly moved out of the opening, eyes roving around carefully to check for anyone who'd noticed a man suddenly appearing out of a grimy old gap between two shops.

As no one seemed to be particularly bothered with him; he started purposefully moving towards the Bank.

His heart thudded against his chest and tiny beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead; he was walking in the middle of Diagon Alley, Death Eaters roaming around a plenty, with nary a concealment other than a hood pulled down that partially covered his face.

Without stopping, or giving a thought to what would happen if he got caught in the heart of Diagon Alley, he started climbing the stairs of the Gringotts.

Rudolphus had already gone inside, when he came to a stop before the massive doors of the Bank. Two goblins shuffled towards him as he stood on the doorsteps. Harry gave no visible regard to their presence, even as his heart pounded his chest as each moment passed. They ran their probity probes over him, looking for any hidden disillusionments or concealment charms.

They found none, for there were none. It took a minute for them to search him but it was over soon. They gave him a brief nod before moving back to their posts.

They hadn't asked him to lift his hood. Harry had not expected them to, after all Harry Potter would hardly come to Gringotts hidden by a simple hood and they didn't dare offend any wizard who could possibly be associated with the Dark Lord.

Lestrange had let him know that Gringotts had surrendered to the Dark Lord, and was now no longer under the absolute control of the goblins. As such they were right to fear any man with a possible connection to the Dark Lord. Duty towards work only went so far after all.

Harry quickly moved inside, careful not to move too fast lest he arouse suspicion.

The bank was exactly as he remembered it to be and had not changed unlike the Alley. Long lines of patrons waited their turn to take money out of their vaults. Harry quickly located Rudolphus. It wasn't hard either. He was arguing violently with a goblin that sat behind a desk.

Harry was grateful for the unplanned commotion, for it made sure that most of the people as well the goblins had their attention drawn towards the Death Eater, who by now had the goblin gripped by its throat, leaving the goblin floundering in its seats. It allowed Harry the distraction to quickly pull out his Invisibility Cloak and wrap it around himself without anyone getting the knowledge of it.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he disappeared from view. He had to admit, his bold plan had worked out just fine.

As he walked over towards Lestrange, Harry noticed that goblin had acquiesced to the Death Eater's demands.

Harry quickly lined up behind Rudolphus and followed him along with another goblin out of the cavernous main hall into a small platform that held several wooden carts on their numerous line tracks.

As the goblin mounted the cart, Lestrange hesitated somewhat. The Death Eater glanced here and there as if someone was likely to jump at him out of the shadows.

"Sir," the goblin asked with more courtesy than Harry had ever witnessed one.

Lestrange whirled towards the goblin with a sudden violent rage and spat angrily, "I did not ask you to speak, you filthy vermin. Do not open your mouth unless you're told to."

The goblin on his part took the slight remarkably well. He stoically turned around and waited for the Death Eater to get on and so did Harry, who couldn't understand what Rudolphus was waiting for.

_Waiting for?_

Harry almost slapped his forehead. Of course Lestrange was waiting for someone. He was waiting for him. He had no idea if he had managed to get into the bank.

Carefully, making sure that the goblin was not observing them, Harry, still invisible, gingerly tapped the man on his shoulder and leaned in close to his ear, "I'm here. What was the problem earlier with the goblins?"

Rudolphus acted impassively to the disembodied voice whispering in his ear.

With an angry frown he turned around and walked over to the cart. "Bloody goblin filth, you need my wand now to check for my identity, do you" he cursed, hitting the goblin's body with his boot, shoving him off his seat.

Harry took the opportunity of the fallen goblin to step into the cart careful enough not to show any dismembered body part hanging in the air. Rudolphus joined him moments later, jumping into the cart with a single fluid vault.

"Drive, you idiot, what're you waiting for," shouted Rudolphus at the goblin, who had by now righted himself.

And without any warning the cart took off at a break-neck pace.

Harry dearly hung onto the cart to save himself from falling though Rudolphus seemed not to care about the speed or the sharp inclines.

Harry need not have worried about the wind whipping his cloak off. As he sat behind Rudolphus, he was protected by the Death Eater's girth even if the goblin was inclined to look behind.

The plan so far was working smoothly; Harry had broken into Gringotts and was on his way to the Lestrange vault without anyone getting any wiser.

The cart took another sharp turn and for a brief moment, Harry saw thick white splashes of falling water. With a sudden alacrity, Harry whipped his Invisibility Cloak straight off him, sitting visible in plain sight. And not a moment too soon as the cart went straight through what appeared to be a heavy water-fall.

Rudolphus had warned him about it. _The Thief's Downfall_ was a rare piece of intricate enchantment that protected the oldest of the Wizarding families vaults. And it was because of this that Harry couldn't just _polyjuice_ into Lestrange and break into the vault. Even _Imperius_ would break under the enchantment.

However, Harry's plan was ingenious in its simplicity. _The Thief's Downfall_ only detected hidden enchantments and concealments. However, if there was nothing to hide, it wouldn't harm him, which was exactly what Harry did by pulling off the Invisibility Cloak before he went through the waterfall.

The cart took another sharp turn and slowly descended down a slope before gently slowing down to a more gentle speed than the break-neck pace they'd been following.

Harry quickly wrapped his Invisibility Cloak around him just as the cart took another turn into a cavern and come to a halt before a dragon — a massive dragon.

The dragon was the last protection outside the vault or so Rudolphus had claimed.

Harry kept a careful eye on it, Rudolphus had mentioned that it was kept chained but Harry was not sure just how accurate the Death Eater had been and how much Gringotts had changed in the time being. After all, if there were extra probity probes and wand identification required then it was not paranoia to expect other measures of security that may have been added.

However, his fears were quickly allayed when the goblin bought out a small bell like object and rung it sharply. The dragon upon hearing the sharp tones of the bell retracted back into its hallowed cavern leaving them free to get out of the cart.

Harry was once again careful that the Invisibility Cloak covered him properly as he got off from the cart.

He waited patiently behind the Death Eater while the goblin went ahead and unlocked the vault for them.

"Stay in the cart, goblin, my business may take a while," announced Rudolphus imperiously.

Rudolphus walked into the Lestrange's vault as the goblin went back to its cart, Harry following close behind the Death Eater.

The Lestrange vault turned out to be a huge chamber. The marble flooring was littered with golden coins, the mounds of Galleons topping the high ceilinged vault. Gold, however, was not the only treasure to be found. Trophies, won of some vicious duel in the past sat idly decorated. Weapons, hideous and cruel, their usage best left unsaid stood guard around the vault.

A long golden spear mounted by a golden crown reclined idly in of the corners. Vials of potion littered a small garishly decorated ornate table top; that Harry was sure was just as precious as the other treasures.

Lestrange disregarded any of his fore-fathers wealth walking straight to a marble stack carved into the very walls of the chamber and plucked from the showcased rich contents, a tiny ornate cup.

Harry exhaled a breath slightly as he saw the Death Eater examining what Harry recognised to be the Hufflepuff's cup.

With a small smile and eyes as vacant as ever, Lestrange looked up, staring a few feet away from Harry and called out, "If you could take off the Cloak, I can hand this over."

Harry could hardly control his excitement as he whipped off the cloak, but not before making sure that he was out of the way of the entrance and not in the possible field of vision of the waiting goblin.

"Hand it over, Lestrange," demanded Harry.

Rudolphus merely smiled and said, "We will make it even Harry, my wand for the cup. Exactly as we vowed. You don't want to break you vow now, do you?"

It was not quite an unexpected demand yet Harry still hesitated a second.

Rudolphus must have noticed the hitch in his movements and he grinned in a more wolfish fashion. "The wand, Potter," he stated, "or I shall consider the vow forfeit."

The ultimatum was resounding in its finality.

Harry gave a small nod and from the lapels of his cloak plucked out the Death Eater's wand. Looking over the wand once, Harry threw it towards Rudolphus, who caught it with his left hand.

"The cup, if you will, Lestrange." Harry demanded.

Rudolphus smiling like a cheshire cat nodded and flung the cup towards Harry who snatched it right out of the air.

Harry was busy examining the cup, when he heard Lestrange speak up.

"Well, I believe we've reached the end of our bargain, Potter. You have the cup and I have my wand. I consider the terms of the vow null and defunct. Do you agree?" asked Lestrange.

Harry nodded and said, "I agree, the vow is complete."

No sooner had Harry said the words, Lestrange had spurred his wand straight towards him, smiling in his characteristic vacant stare.

"Potter, you really are a fool, aren't you?"

Harry was outraged. "You can't harm me, Lestrange. The vow ..." Harry stopped, suddenly stumped.

"Ah! Realisation has finally swept in," Lestrange said calmly. "I never vowed not to curse you Potter, just that I will not intimate your presence to the Dark Lord. Well, see I won't have to do that myself. A blasting curse would throw you out of the vault. The goblins would alert him. I won't need to do anything."

Harry had in the meantime raised his own wand to defend himself.

"Now, Harry, none of that. You promised, after all," said Lestrange.

Harry gave a sigh of frustration and lowered his wand. It was true he could not harm the Death Eater. He had vowed not to, after all.

Lestrange smiled and said in a voice that was as cold as a Dementor's aura, "Make no mistake, Potter, I'll have my retribution."

And with that Lestrange snapped his wand forward. The tip of his wand illuminated in a nimbus of dark red before grey sparks burst around the Death Eater's wand and interrupted the spell, moments before the spell redirected and came out through the back of the wand.

The curse caught Lestrange in his chest and threw him back, flying straight into the carved marble stacks. His head impacted against the tiles and he fell to the ground limply.

Harry gave a small sigh. With a smile that was itching to break out on his face, Harry carefully manoeuvred around the strewn treasure heaps striding forward towards the fallen form of the Death Eater.

Harry had meticulously scripted the mission. He had intentionally offered the Death Eater his wand in return for his services and knowingly hindered his own ability to defend himself against Lestrange.

The idea had come to him when Harry was pursuing the Auror manuals in the Dursley household.

One of the manuals talked at length about the various curses and jinxes that can be placed upon objects. And there in that book Harry found a rather nifty jinx called the _backfiring_ _wand_. Harry remembered well enough the condition of Ron's wand in his second year at Hogwarts and how it would fireback the spells thrown back on the caster. That had been an accident, what Harry wanted for Lestrange was anything but.

Thus, formed Harry's idea of knocking Lestrange out with his own curse. It had taken immense studying and preparation to cast the jinx on Lestrange's wand. He'd needed to understand the very intricacies a wand used to cast a spell to be able to reverse its path. What was more; a wand's constitution significantly changed the way the jinx was applied. As such jinx he'd applied Lestrange's ash and dragon heartstring wouldn't work for his holly and phoenix wand.

Harry's dedication and hard work had paid off though and just three days ago when they were still in the Dursley household discussing the plan for breaking into Gringotts with Rudolphus, Harry had managed a breakthrough when the cheering charm he'd cast successfully reversed its path and hit him in his chest.

Harry stood in front of the unconscious form of Rudolphus Lestrange and from the folds of his robe extracted a tiny vial of Polyjuice Potion. Hermione had appropriated some when they'd been planning their mission.

Harry's plan was simple, the goblin had seen the Death Eater go into the vault and he would see the Death Eater come out. His entire plan had almost gone out in a wisp of smoke when he'd first heard of _The Thief's Downfall_, but Rudolphus had inadvertently told him that he'd only meet the enchanted waterfall on his way in and not out.

Harry stooped to pick some hairs off the head of the Death Eater and when a sudden a thought stopped him in mid-motion. His vow not to harm the Death Eater was still active.

He gritted his teeth. He should have taken a sample of hair before making the vow. The Unbreakable Vow was unique in that it acted the way people perceived events. Since, Rudolphus was his enemy plucking his hairs could be interpreted as a sign of violence and the vow would proceed to kill him, quite painfully too, if Harry knew anything about it. Harry was sure that if the man had not been his enemy and they did not harbour such hatred against each other he could easily pluck some hairs off his scalp.

As it stood though, he couldn't afford the risk that he might accidentally trigger the vow. And that put him in a quandary. How was he to leave the vault if he couldn't impersonate the Death Eater? He couldn't just leave the vault invisible. He was miles underneath London and would need the goblin's cart to reach the bank.

And it was then that Harry noticed tiny beads of blood falling on the Death Eater's forehead. He lifted his eyes and saw the blood coagulating in the marble stacks. Lestrange must have impacted head first against it and splintered his skull.

Harry gave a tiny sigh of relief and proceeded to scrap some of the blood of the stacks, careful not to touch any other artefacts. He was all too well aware of the dangers of attempting to filch any of the treasures of the vault. Harry added the blood to the potion which hissed violently and turned a dark greyish silver.

Hesitating just a bit, Harry drank the concoction in a single swallow and braced himself for the change that he knew would occur.

He had barely finished gulping down the potion when he felt his chest contract and then expand rapidly. His face grew. He felt his jaws grow and his scalp shrink. His eyes burned and Harry quickly took off his glasses knowing that the Death Eater's body had no need of it.

When he had finished his transformation, Harry transfigured his clothes to match the Death Eater's. Not trusting the vow not to interfere with a switching spell.

Harry whirled around and strode out of the vault with his long strides, not before breaking Rudolphus' wand underneath his heel.

The vault's door shut down behind him and Harry wearing the body of Rudolphus Lestrange hopped onto the cart kicking the goblin in the process.

"Do you intend to stay here forever, goblin?" Harry snarled at the creature, trying his best to imitate the Death Eater now trapped in his own vault, with his treasures and a broken wand.

"No sir."

"Move then, will you?" Harry replied, kicking the goblin again just to make sure.

As the cart began to move, Harry gave a last glance at Lestrange's vault and the Death Eater trapped in it. He had never intended to let the man go free. Not after what he knew the man had done to Neville's parents.

As the cart sped along the sharp turns, Harry couldn't help a smile from breaking out on his face. The Hufflepuff's cup was hidden in his robes and Voldemort was now down to two Horcruxes.

* * *

**A.N:** I know this was greatly delayed. But I do intend to finish this story. Next up might be a bunch of one-shots that I have in varying degree of completion.


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